Hi 


iiipifllllll 


m 

iiiiiSiV, 


11      liii 
I  lilii 

m\  lipfii 


fiii 


111   i^ifeiii^^^^^^^ 


ill 

iiiiili'iiidt'jiMiffli!)!;;'' 
1l!J!'l!!ii;i-.:!!l!i!iv!f:p, 


^lliliiiiiil'^ 

^iil*lilPli^^!|!|:|-1!l!l;ii^ii!|;'!'!!l;i^lq^^ 


^m 


IB 


|i!iPiiiiiiiii!iiiiL:i!!l-i!::iiiiii;inp^^ 

liiiliiliilliiiiliiiliiilii! 

,,|!lifi||||i!|!|||l!iiiii;|, 

"'n!ii:yii!J!a;il!i!iil;!i:;!iij:i!:lii';Hi!|!!!;i;|^^^ 


|lil|!|pj!|j|jj||![ii!i!il!|!!iiip|jjp^^^ 

iiiili 


Sii::SipiillPPf  illp^^     „^. 


MM. 


III  ill  ^i':;i?^^'>;:;!iH^ 

Hwra  iiiiiil)in''i'|i;Mi|Hi:!ii:i;^^;miiiii;^'''u^ii:iii-;  ";"ii  ^j:'' 


illijiiijliiiillii^ 

imf^iiillPiililipfl^ 

iilMlBi;iiyiiii!^i!!!iil!iKi!iiil!!!;!li!i!»'«!^i:y;^^^ 


i  iiiSiiiit 


iiliiiliii 


ISIil!" 


liii!    I  i  111 


;iiliiiliilMi|i|lii!:l!«i;il!Sil!ill!;i:l 


^LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALK  ORNIA 

SAN  DICGO 


ix 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/criminaltypesOOmast 


CRIMINAL   TYPES 


BY 
COL.  V.  M.  HASTEN 


BOSTON 
RICHARD  G.  BADGER 

THE    GORHAM    PRESS 


COPYHIOHT,    1922,   BT    RlCHAHD   G.    BaDOER 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


INTRODUCTION 

Very  much  in  the  printed  page  has  been  aimed 
wide  of  the  mark  alike  of  the  prevention,  the  deter- 
rence, and  the  reclamation  of  the  predal  felon. 

It  is  intended  that  this  semi-technical  volume  shall 
help  to  call  the  truly  reformative  turn.  Also,  the 
intention  is  that  the  subject  matter  of  the  book  shall 
at  once  amplify  and  reenforce  conclusions  reached  in 
The  Crime  Problem  and  Stop  Thief!  the  author's 
previous    publications. 

A  distinctively  scientific  treatise  on  crime  and 
criminals  is  not  essayed  by  the  writer,  for  the  very 
good  reason  that  such  a  treatise  is  not,  at  this  mo- 
ment, to  any  man's  hand.  This,  because  human 
society  seethes  in  the  most  fateful  transitional  state 
of  all  time  up  to  this  time;  because  human  expres- 
sion is  more  complex  and  varied  than  during  any 
other  period  of  human  history ;  because  material 
values  change  with  constantly  changing  conditions; 
and  because  the  criminal  picks  his  tools  and  plys 
them  aggreeably  with  the  pressure  upon  him  of 
objective  influences  germane  in  those  conditions  of 
change. 

The  crass  criminal  presents  no  psychic  problem. 
3 


4  Introduction 

lie  is  much  as  he  was,  impelled'  much  as  he  was, 
whin  cjivcmcii  carried  clubs.  Having,  usually,  but 
mctliocre  mental  equipment,  and  being  crowded  out 
of  the  big  games  of  life,  he  has  recourse  naturally 
cither  to  individual  force,  or  to  crooked  cunning 
with  which  to  match  the  throws  of  his  better- 
equipped  brothers. 

Bv  and  large,  the  issue  with  the  low-grade  habit- 
ual forager  is  a  very  simple  one;  in  the  final  anal- 
vsis,  he  leaves  society  no  choice  other  than  to  fight 
him  with  the  like  of  his  chosen  weapons. 

There  will  be  isolated  and  sporadic  exceptions 
to  the  general  rule  given;  but  as  to  the  grand  ma- 
jority of  marauding  criminals,  they  must  be  met, 
both  in  and  out  of  prison,  with  force  more  impressive 
than  that  which  they  employ ;  palpably  so,  else 
penal  codes  might  as  well  be  pigeon-holed  for  con- 
taining meaningless  proscriptions. 

It  is  as  all  would  like  it  when  the  force  can  be 
confined  to  educative  measures  so  ordered  for  sus- 
tained averages  as  to  encourage  the  imprisoned  to 
help  themselves;  but  when  they  won't  help,  just 
wont,  then  steps  must  be  taken  which  will  make  it 
practically  impossible  for  them  further  to  filch  from 
their  fellowmen. 

If  a  thief  will  have  it  no  other  way  than  to  be  a 
thief,  then  control  of  him,  and  not  his  social  rehabili- 
tation, must  be  the  desideratum. 


Introduction  5 

Circumstantial  felons  there  will  be  so  long  as 
social  circumstance  makes  for  them.  Always  a  cer- 
tain percentage  will  go  down  under  the  pressure  of 
a  closely  competitive  social  scheme  that  recks  but 
little  of  moral  weaklings,  and  less  of  physical 
slackers ;  but  such  bear  serious  relation  to  criminal 
statistics  in  the  sense  only  that  they  are  dragged 
down  to  habitual  crime  appreciably  by  criminal 
recidivists  ;  by  repeating  felons  who  forage  on  society 
by  choice,  who  make  no  bones  about  it,  who  shout 
stout  defense  of  it,  and  who  glory  in  it. 

With  the  latter  class  of  criminals  it  is  up  to 
America  to  deal,  and  to  do  it  now.  During  recent 
decades,  and  within  and  without  prison  walls,  crime- 
breeding  slack  has  been  paid  out  to  them  until  to 
kill  inithlessly  means  not  so  much  to  them  as  would 
warts  on  their  hands. 

Therefore:  reformative  regimes  should  function  so 
as  to  free  such  prisoners  of  shackles  forged  by  their 
lower  selves.  When  refractory  units  will  not  coop- 
erate to  that  end,  the  aim  of  society  must  be  for 
deterrence  that  protects  society  from  them,  and  no 
apology  whatsoever  to  them  for  the  deterrence. 

For  society  habitually  to  bare  its  breast  to  the 
deadly  strokes  of  derailed  underdogs,  just  because 
they  are  derailed  underdogs,  is  for  society  to  spade 
at  its  own  grave. 


6  Introduction 

Statistics  that  involve  general  conclusions  are 
avoided  herein.  They  are,  because  under  present 
opportunity  for  specific  research,  they  cannot  be 
made  either  substantially  reliable  or  inclusive.  At 
the  best  they  may  mislead.  At  the  worst  they  will 
lie. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  Typal    Earmarks 11 

II  The  Criminal  Mind 32 

III  The  Moral  Criminal 51 

IV  The  Psychiatrist 66 

V  The  Criminologist 88 

VI  Links  in  the  Chain  of  Crime     .      .      .  104 

VII  Chamois-Skin  Criminologists       .      .      .  121 

VIII  "Excess    Prophets" 141 

IX  Crime  and  the  Lay  Critic     .      .      .      .  154 

X  Prison  Discipline 169 

XI  Psychology  and  the  Criminal    .      .      .  192 

XII  Summary 236 


CRIMINAL  TYPES 


CRIMINAL  TYPES 


TYPAL  EARMARKS 

Criminal  types  there  are,  but  there  is  no  one 
criminal  type. 

Closely-allied  criminous  expression  is  vastly  dif- 
ferent as  to  individual  intent.  That  will  be  so  be- 
cause the  underlying  causes  for  like  offenders  are 
dissimilar    and    variable. 

The  height  of  the  offense  usually  squares  with  the 
depth  of  depravity,  the  which  is  no  respector  of 
facial  or  other  deviations  from  the  Apollo  type. 

Jails  would  be  more  numerous  than  churches,  were 
natural  criminals  surely  shadowed  forth  in  visible 
signs  such  as  long,  tapering  fingers ;  rodent  eyes, 
or  those  bead-like,  shifty,  countersunk  and  narrowly 
spaced;  bull  neck,  connected  with  a  vertically-lined 
back  head;  laterally-extended  side- jaw  bones;  pro- 
truding fore  jaw;  the  ape's  forehead,  marked  by 
the  ape's  fuzzy  hairline,  the  same  fuzzy  hair  extend- 
ing inward  from  under  the  outer  edges  of  the  eye 

11 


..^- 


12  Criminal  Types 

sockets ;  eagle's  beak,  or  more  commonly,  the  tan- 
gential, flattened  nose  of  the  gorilla,  with  arms  like 
his,  unusually  long  and  big-boned  as  compared  with 
the  rest  of  the  frame;  thin  lips,  emphasizing  a 
cruelly-set  mouth,  or  thick  lip  above  a  ponderous 
jaw;  and  ears  in  all  sizes,  conformation,  setting  and 
contour,  opposed  to  the  perfect  model. 

It  is  true  that  the  predal  felon  frequently  fea- 
tures several  of  such  as  the  signs  indicated.  It  is 
also  true  that  millions  of  honest  freemen  feature  the 
same  signs,  and  do  no  worse  than  dissemble,  as  more 
or  less  do  all  humans.  And  it  is  further  true  that, 
in  so  far  as  emphasis  on  such  symbols  is  concerned, 
the  bulk  of  lawbreakers  would  pass  unnoticed  in  a 
promiscuous  crowd. 

Still,  close  parallels  prevail  as  between  members 
of  classes  of  the  anti-social.  They  ply  the  same 
tools,  speak  the  same  language,  are  bound  by  and 
large  by  the  same  laws  of  clan,  foregather  in  the 
same  caves  of  earth,  affect  the  same  mannerisms  and 
mental  attitude,  and  spend  ill-gotten  gain  for  in- 
trinsically the  same  things,  if  over  different  counters ; 
but  they  do  not  yield  of  themselves  in  the  same 
measure  to  the  powers  of  darkness.  If  they  did,  the 
bulk  of  them  would  be  capital  criminals,  instead  of 
offenders  against  property. 

Usually  the  pack  are  of  one  mind  as  to  the  method 
of  procedure,  else  they  wouldn't  "pal"  it  as  one. 
Type  then  matches  type  as  closely  as  members  of 


Typal  Earviarks  13 

criminal  types  match ;  yet  no  two  will  be  actuated 
by  absolutely  the  same  motives,  and  no  two  will  have 
come  by  motives  to  act  in  absolutely  the  same  way. 
The  demarcation  may  call  for  the  most  careful  of 
research ;  but  it  will  be  there,  and  it  will  demarcate, 
if  only  by  shading  so  slight  as  to  escape  other  than 
the  truly  expert  examiner. 

Glaring  cross-matches  of  type  evolve  not  infre- 
quently, as  for  example:  of  two  on  the  same  job, 
the  one  would  ride  rough-shod  and  quickly  over 
human  life  to  what  he  seeks.  The  other  balks,  then 
and  there,  at  ruthless  spilling  of  blood,  and  will 
"queer  the  deal"  rather  than  be  party  to  a  killing. 

The  first  duty  of  the  criminologist  is  to  probe 
to  the  cardinal  causes  for  a  given  type  of  criminal. 
Doing  it,  he  will  uncover  the  fact  that  aside  from  the 
congenital  thief — who  thieves  as  naturally  as  his 
more  polished  prototype  mulcts  agreeably  with  man- 
struck  statutes — the  average  criminal  commonly 
consummates  in  effect  to  help  whirl  the  treadmills  of 
parasitic  sporting  mongers.  He  is  the  pawn  sacri- 
ficed in  the  all-comprehensive  predal  game.  His 
the  lay  to  go  out  and  "get  the  goods,"  somewhere, 
anyway;  theirs  to  induce  him  to  stake  his  loot 
against  odds  that  are  unbeatable  at  long  play.  He 
takes  all  of  the  chances  coming  and  going;  but  since 
he  is  a  generous  and  constant  provider,  nimble-fin- 
gered and  witted  gentry  pass  some  little  of  coin  to 
grease  his  going,  and  to  "stake"  him,  fresh  from 


14  Criminal  Types 

durance  for  having  waxed  a  bit  too  bold  while 
operating  out  of  the  domain  of  comparative  immun- 
ity. In  big  cities,  the  "bull"  usually  gets  him  only 
when  he  bungles. 

In  any  case  it  is  "Easy  come,  easy  go"  with  the 
criminal,  both  as  to  the  gelt  he  gets  and  his  punish- 
ment for  getting  it  the  way  he  gets  it ;  and  so,  while 
plying  their  nefarious  tools,  all  types  of  crimi- 
nals play  both  ends  against  the  established  social 
order. 

The  marauding  type  figure,  for  instance,  that  it 
is  clever  business  to  crack  a  man  on  the  cranium, 
relieve  him  of  a  money  satchel  containing  a  small 
fortune,  "plant"  the  fortune,  then  if  caught  and 
convicted,  loll  around  a  prison  for  a  few  months; 
and  it  is  "clever"  as  seen  from  the  criminal's  point 
of  view,  however  asinine  it  may  be  from  the  view- 
point of  deterring  him. 

Right  here  hides  "the  nigger  in  the  woodpile": 
the  thief  is  sentenced  merely  to  serve  time,  without 
regard  for  restitution  of  that  which  he  had  stolen. 
In  many  cases  the  time  served  is  little  more  than 
"sleepin*  time"  the  which  he  jeeringly  dubs  it;  and 
in  no  case  does  it  cover  the  question  of  equity. 

What  actual  redress  has  a  man  for  the  loss  of 
thousands  of  dollars,  in  the  imprisonment  of  a  male- 
factor, no  matter  how  long  his  term  of  imprison- 
ment runs? 

What    the   deterrence   in   a   comparatively    short 


Typal  Earmarks  15 

prison  terra  that  leaves  the  prisoner  with  a  firm  grip 
on  his  bundle  of  loot? 

What  expect  other  than  that  certain  types  of 
men  will  gladly  dare  issues  written  to  their  hands, 
hearts,  and  natural  predilections?  Why  wouldn't 
such  go  after  what  they  want  with  murderous  tools? 

How  repress  the  criminal  by  bidding  for  him,  and 
how  deter  him  through  laying  odds  in  his  favor  that 
are  close  to  prohibitive  as  against  society? 

Where  the  sense  in  penal  procedure  that  puts  a 
premium,  both  in  and  out  of  prison,  on  the  won't- 
work  criminal  rounder,  and  blisters  the  itinerant  who 
does  no  worse  than  hawk  harmless  wares? 

Why,  on  the  one  hand,  tempt  cupidity,  and  on  the 
other  hand,  tax  honesty?  And  if,  as  an  individual, 
you  will  have  it  that  way,  why  feel  peeved  about  it, 
shall  an  automatic  be  shoved  against  your  stomach 
as  a  raucous  voice  bites  off  the  command,  *'Cough 
up  the  coin?" 

Penal  law  will  serve  the  commonwealth  as  it  should 
only  when  it  shall  have  assured  restitution  in  kind 
by  the  thief,  up  to  the  reasonable  limit.  This,  as  to 
immediate  restitution  of  "planted"  loot  not  only ; 
but  the  sentence  should  further  amerce  to  a  fine  of 
the  unpaid  balance,  to  be  worked  out  usually  in 
prison  by  the  prisoner  and  credited  to  the  account 
of  the  party,  or  parties,  he  robbed. 

If  fine  in  prison  working  days  were  not  congruous 
with  generous  justice,  then  the  penalty  to  further 


If)  Criminal  Tfjpes 

amerce  to  stated  monthly  payments  by  the  prisoner 
on  parole,  to  be  held  reasonably  to  his  last  by  the 
State,  or  in  lieu  thereof,  to  be  re-apprehended  and 
required  to  j)ay  by  compulsion  as  stated. 

Cases  would  come  up,  of  course,  whereof  the  exact 
lettering  of  law  of  the  kind  could  not  be  executed; 
but  such  law  could  and  should  be  framed  so  as  to 
embrace  the  great  bulk  of  predal  offenses,  and  still 
carry  sufficient  of  elasticity  to  enable  committing 
magistrates  to  judge  and  dispose  wisely  for  the 
common    good. 

It  will  be  objected  that  such  legal  procedure  would 
visit  hardships  on  the  families  of  offenders.  Un- 
questionably that  would  be  so  in  isolated  instances, 
albeit  the  bulk  of  predal  felons  do  not  have  families, 
and  when  they  do,  they  are  frequently  a  drag  on 
them. 

Again,  it  is,  in  the  end,  for  the  best  interests  of 
all  concerned,  that  the  State  shall  bring  the  last 
pressure  to  bear  in  order  to  stop  the  thief;  par- 
ticularly, marauding  and  foraging  thieves.  And 
again,  the  State  could  furnish  work  for  the  families 
of  prisoners  in  cases  of  special  need — and  save 
money. 

Through  it  all,  relative  distinction  should  be  made 
as  between  the  purely  circumstantial  and  habitual 
thief.  Not  that  social  bon-bons  should  be  tossed 
to  the  former;  but  that  very  close  to  even-handed 
justice  should  be  meted  out  to  the  latter.     So  much 


Typal  EarmarJcs  IT 

distinctively  should  be  done  because  by-choice  predal 
felons  always  constitute  the  nucleus  of  crime  and 
criminal  intent  in  America. 

Isolated  cases  will  not  be  entirely  congruous  with 
any  general  rule  of  penal  law;  but  consideration  of 
the  peace  and  security  of  the  great  mass  must  go 
before  emotional  procedure  whatsoever  which  crosses 
the  curbing  of  the  gun-hung  hound  who  goes  a'riding 
to  kill. 

To  split  hairs  of  deterrence  over  confirmed  social 
hyenas,  is  to  furnish  them  with  the  last  formula  from 
which  to  tear  things. 

At  any  rate,  the  most  efficient  punishment  is  nat- 
ural punishment.  To  make  the  thief  pay  in  kind  is 
absolutely  the  best  way  by  which  to  discourage  the 
thief;  and  shall  he  have  been  made  to  pay  for  a 
"dead  horse,"  he  shall  have,  mayhap,  for  the  first 
time  in  his  life,  absorbed  an  awakening  respect  for 
the  law  of  consequence.  And  having  got  so  far,  may- 
hap there  will  be  hope  for  him;  but  not  so,  so  long 
as  society  practically  furnishes  him  grist  to  grind 
in  such  as  subterranean  "protection,"  false  sentence, 
false  probatory  extensions,  and  false  prison  regimes 
which  allow  him  to  pick  and  choose,  play  up  and 
down   and  under. 

Specifically  writing,  the  time  to  start  "restitu- 
tion" is  in  the  time  of  youth,  and  the  occasion,  the 
first  offense.  Then,  when  the  toll  against  a  lad  is 
comparatively  in  pennies,  the  degradation  of  thiev- 


18  Criminal  Types 

ing  should  be  brought  home  to  him  in  a  parole  paper 
contingent  upon  his  restoration,  dollar  for  dollar, 
of  that  of  which  he  had  deprived  another.  There- 
after, raise  the  imposition  to  suit  repetition,  so  long 
as  he  is  held  subject  to  probation.  At  the  reforma- 
tory, the  same  rule  should  hold,  plus  legal  interest 
on  the  obligation — shall  he  have  come  up  through  a 
juvenile  school  of  reform,  after  having  broken  pro- 
batory   parole. 

Measures  of  the  kind  wouldn't  cure  all  of  thievery, 
since  many  thieves  are  born  thieves  who  take  to 
thieving  as  ducks  to  water ;  but  they  would  serve  in 
due  time  to  cause  the  bulk  of  potential  thieves  to 
consider  it  most  carefully  before  deciding  for  the 
anti-social  chute. 

Whatever  the  type  of  criminal,  he  is  usually 
motivated  cardinally  in  the  selection  of  a  criminal 
career  by  a  very  positive  distaste  for  actual  work. 
If  he  is  an  itinerant,  half-baked  tradesman,  he  will 
take  a  "flyer"  here  and  there  at  his  craft,  espe- 
cially while  the  police  are  combining  for  those  of 
his  kidney ;  but  consecutive,  concentrated  endeavor 
in  a  humdrum  groove  he  will  not  abide.  And  since 
his  instinctive  impulsions  are  those  of  the  parasite, 
and  his  appetites  those  which  require  some  little  of 
money  to  satisfy,  he  takes  naturally  to  the  tools  of 
the  crook. 

What  crooked  tools  he  will  select  will  depend 
largely   upon   his   natural   fitness   to   employ   them. 


Typal  Earmarks  19 

Usually  he  aims  to  excel  in  his  particular  line,  and 
he  will  usually  choose  the  line  in  which  he  thinks 
he  can  do  so.  If  he  is  rough-hewn,  likes  the  feel  of 
rough  tools,  and  has  the  knack  of  handling  them,  he 
will  likely  enlist  in  the  yeggman  division.  One  whose 
tastes  are  more  refined  and  temper  more  timorous, 
will  naturally  go  in  for  forgery,  if  he  guides  a  cun- 
ning tracing  pen.  The  big-tent  men,  with  nerve  and 
daring,  take  the  longest  chance  with  superior  intel- 
ligence and  engraving  skill,  and  keep  paying  tellers 
agog.  Those  who  pack  a  plausible  "gift  of  gab," 
backed  by  no  mean  knowledge  of  the  intricacies  of 
high  finance,  as  well  as  where  the  same  does  and 
does  not  trench  upon  legal  proscriptions,  constitute 
the  Wallingfords  of  "fake"  promotion;  and  lesser 
lights  of  the  same  persuasion  who  have  neither  the 
smoothness  of  personality,  approach  and  attack  of 
their  bigger  brothers,  form  the  "now-you-see-it-and- 
now-you-don't"  fraternity  of  endless  variety  and 
variety  of  working  tools.  The  sneak-thief  runs 
true  to  his  name,  and  is  properly  most  dreaded  by 
the  clan  criminal,  some  of  whom  he  is  most  liable  to 
"double-cross,"  and  others  to  euchre  with  the  cards 
of  the  "stool-pigeon."  Second-story  operators,  his 
near  relations,  are  commonly  drug-soaked  neurotics 
with  a  penchant  for  the  air-line,  and  bizarre  ways 
and  means  of  getting  to  it  and  getting  away  with 
it. 

Since  the  temptation  is  great  to  get  a  whole  lot  for 


A>~^aJl 


20  Crhnvnal  Types 

nothing  and  to  do  it  quickly,  and  since  it  is  so 
easily  done  these  days,  the  marauding  criminal  will 
be  most  any  type  of  criminal;  but  he  is  commonly 
a  nmrderously-inclincd  high-wit  of  his  class  of  ex- 
ceptional nerve  and  resourcefulness,  to  the  first  of 
which  he  is  commonly  helped  by  such  as  heroin,  and 
to  the  second  by  that  spitting  devil  in  spumous  hands 
■ — the  automobile.  When  he  is  a  low-wit,  and  plans 
accordingly,  the  "finest"  betimes  get  him;  and  when 
they  do,  he  is  a  low-wit  indeed  if  he  cannot  flash  an 
indestructible  alibi.  Why  not,  when  the  testimony 
of  his  retainers  is  accepted  at  its  face  value  in  our 
courts  of  law.^* 

The  above  partition  of  the  predal  crew  is  far 
from  final,  either  as  to  selection  of  tools,  or  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  are  employed.  There  will  be 
overlapping  and  underlapping  all  along  the  criminal 
line,  although  the  criminal  is  commonly  quite  as 
nice  as  another  about  his  caste,  habitually  fore- 
gathers with  those  of  his  attainment,  and  affects  to 
spurn  smaller  fry. 

But  bear  it  in  mind  that  no  two  criminals  are  im- 
pelled to  criminousness  by  identically  the  same  under- 
lying impulsions. 

The  moral  weakling  stepped  off  with  pyramided 
peculation,  got  caught  at  it,  and  lacking  moral 
stamina  to  face  out  squarely  a  grave  mistake,  chose 
the  supposedly  lesser  line  of  resistance  to  "easy 
money." 


Typal  EftrinarJcs  21 

This  lad,  congenitally  tainted  with  light  fingers, 
brought  up  in  the  midst  of  criminal  suggestion,  de- 
prived of  the  benefit  of  influences  that  might  have 
counterbalanced,  literally  kicked  into  the  company 
of  habitual  thieves,  finally  casts  his  lot  with  them 
and  lets  it  go  at  that. 

That  young  man,  inoculated  with  several  species 
of  the  sporting  bug,  and  with  virus  that  saps  at 
once  his  courage  and  vitality,  gets  entangled  where 
he  can't  get  clear,  juggles  figures,  and  finds  his  way 
into  a  6  X  8  cell,  where,  being  a  consummate  ego- 
centric— spite  of  the  miserable  mess  he  has  made  of 
it — he  indulges  in  self  pity,  swears  to  himself  that 
"everybody  gave  him  the  worst  of  it,"  and  declares 
for  reprisal  upon  society  in  general.  This  is  the 
type  most  likely  either  to  "overlap  or  underlap," 
depending  upon  the  prison  regime  and  the  after- 
parole  circumstance. 

Another,  engulfed  over  a  heartless  wench  who 
rouses  in  him  the  demon  jealousy — through  playing 
him  against  the  fellow  who  flashes  "real"  money,  and 
for  whom  she  adjusts  the  base  string  of  her  bow — 
goes  desperate  for  means  with  which  to  match  his 
rival's  flings,  "borrows"  "bundle"  after  "bundle" 
from  his  employer,  bets  all,  mostly  on  the  wrong 
"ponies,"  is  held  up,  then  thrown  down  by  the  girl, 
and  then  caves  in  and  limps  into  a  life  of  crime. 

Such  as  the  latter  two  types  are  criminals  by  the 
legal  book,  but  as  a  rule  they  are  not  intrinsic  crim- 


22  Criminal  Types 

inals.  Rather,  Ihey  are  comparatively  spineless  mis- 
fits in  a  closely  competitive  social  scheme. 

One  who  does  predicate  the  alloy  in  man  is  the 
bom  brute  who  wields  a  blackjack  with  unrepressed 
satisfaction,  kills  ruthlessly  without  pity  or  subse- 
quent remorse,  and  comes  naturally  by  a  social 
sense  so  blunted  and  oblique  that  he  wouldn't  walk 
a  straight  line  if  he  knew  it  led  to  paradise.  Partly 
as  a  side  issue  for  gain,  and  partly  to  assure  appre- 
ciable immunity  from  punishment  for  the  common 
crimes  of  his  class,  the  likes  of  him  take  on  political 
thugism,  and  practically  the  same  thing  when  they 
act  as  "starkers"  for  the  active  agents  of  certain 
labor  unions.  Needless  to  add,  down-and-out  ex- 
prize  fighters,  and  would-be  pugs  of  the  prize  ring, 
constantly  recruit  the  mounting  army  corps  of  foot- 
pads, and  "buzz-wagon"  bandits. 

To  immigration  laws  framed  and  executed  as  if 
in  response  to  the  dictation  of  the  spewed  human 
spawn  of  the  universe,  is  America  indebted  initially 
for  brigades  of  her  most  dangerous  brigands. 

Sicilian  and  Neapolitan-Italians,  members  respec- 
tively of  the  Camorra  and  Mafiauso,  particularly 
run  to  death-dealing  criminality,  prosecuted  mainly 
individual  against  individual  or  group  against  group 
within  the  clan,  or  clan  against  clan,  or  either  or 
both  in  the  form  of  blackmail  against  countrymen 
who  have  made  or  are  making  their  pile,  some  hon- 
estly, more  the  reverse.    The  law  does  not  cope  with 


Typal  Earmarks  23 

them  and  their  ox-like  blood-brothers  in  crime  from 
the  North  and  East  of  Italy,  because  the  law  goes 
about  it  piecemeal.  Nothing  short  of  a  thorough 
governmental  housecleaning  of  such  will  meet  the 
issue  as  the  government  has  allowed  it  to  be  pre- 
sented by  them.  However  they  may  war  against  each 
other,  they  move  practically  as  one  against  the 
foundations  of  American  institutions.  Therefore 
they  must  be  met  with  America's  concentrated  power, 
consecutively  applied.  Pecking  at  them,  here  a  peck, 
there  a  peck,  is  childish  compromise  with  them,  and 
they  know  it ;  therefore,  they  are  of  the  most  flip- 
pant of  the  genus  criminal:  the  more  naturally  so, 
because  their  native  countries  played  into  their 
hands  much  as  America  plays  into  them. 

Close  in  the  running  with  the  foreign-born  ma- 
rauder is  the  mostly  second-generation  hyphenate, 
who  would  stretch  the  commandment  to  all  of  earthly 
time,  and  retain  the  phrasing — "In  it  thou  shalt 
do  no  manner  of  work."  This  usually  low-strata, 
erotic,  intrinsically  dirty,  diseased,  all-round  trick- 
ster type,  habitue  of  pool  rooms,  tinhorn  gambling 
dens,  and  lowest-down  houses  of  prostitution,  is 
pernicious  because  he  is  so  all-pervading,  while  ver- 
satile in  his  limited  sphere:  meaning,  for  instance, 
that  he  is  just  enough  of  a  card  shark  to  flank  a  real 
captain  at  crooked  dealing,  and  just  enough  of  a 
bandit  to  "steer'*  and  help  plunder  such  as  an  in- 
ebriated plunger,  or  to  assist  in  a  roughly-engineered 


24<  Crimmal  Types 

hold-up.  He  will  affect  good  clothes  and  the  like, 
but  will  usually  wear  them  in  such  pattern,  color, 
ensemble,  and  fashion,  as  to  render  him  at  once 
suspect  to  the  trained  eye.  Even  in  the  matter  of 
dress,  criminals  example  duck  following  duck,  and 
doing  it,  take  on  little  habits,  especially  of  using  and 
placing  their  hands,  that  are  informing.  Also,  as 
to  the  predatory  type,  particularly,  the  set,  wolfish 
expression  of  countenance  is  quite  likely  to  be  as 
marked  as  is  the  "poker  face"  of  the  green-cloth 
gambler.  And  also,  his  sexual  excesses  will  be  lined 
in  his  face,  as  plainly  as  the  geographic  divisions 
between  States. 

Prolific  dupes  of  the  preceding  type  of  criminal 
are  potential  criminals  brewed  originally  in  the  home 
still:  mama's  or  papa's,  or  mama's  and  papa's  self- 
indulged  pets,  given  money  to  burn,  and  unques- 
tioned opportunity  to  burn  it  after  the  manner  of 
the  globe-trotting  freelance.  Enough  said,  save  only 
that  criminals  so  fashioned  are  usually  the  most 
difficult  and  most  tenacious  of  criminals ;  the  former, 
because  they  are  usually  the  most  intelligent ;  and 
the  latter,  for  the  reason  that  they  were  home- 
primed,  up  through  the  most  impressionable  periods 
of  youth  and  young  manhood,  for  that  which  they 
quite  naturally  take  on  in  the  end.  The  intrinsic 
good  in  such  lads  is  never  entirely  obliterated ;  hence 
they  have  their  sober  moments — so  sober  in  fact 
that  they  commonly  make  for  the  "white  stuff"  and 


Typal  Earmarks  25 

forgetfulness,  as  well  as  for  nerve  to  go  on  with 
it.    And  then — finis ! 

The  mental  dud  and  habitue  of  iniquitous  dens 
fetches  and  carries  for  more  pretentious  criminals. 
He  will  likely  be  a  graduated  dock-rat.  Also,  the 
passive  agent  on  whom  certain  criminals  execute 
their  sexually-perverted  desires ;  and  also,  he  will  be 
taking  his  kindergarten  degrees  at  picking,  snatch- 
ing and  sneaking.  Such  crowded-out  derelicts  are 
much  to  be  pitied  and  little  blamed,  since  they  are 
the  victims  of  cumulative  circumstances  wholly  un- 
fortuitous. 

So  one  might  pick  and  parse  to  many  times  the 
length  of  this  chapter,  not  forgetting  the  meanest 
of  secondary,  subterranean  crooks,  who  sport  one 
or  another  badge  of  authority,  while  declaring  them- 
selves "in"  on  the  division  of  criminal  spoils.  When 
the  "division"  reaches  to  those  who  pull  political 
strings,  we  have  the  ulcerating  stage  of  the  criminous 
sore  in  the  body  politic. 

While  considering  the  limited  list  of  criminal  types 
herein  adumbrated,  recall  again  and  again  that  not 
less  than  seventy  per  cent  of  the  members  of  them 
are  the  ready  dupes  of  those  who  utter  and  shove 
this  or  that  mint  of  spurious  sporting  coin,  inclu- 
sive of  "dames"  of  all  varieties  of  their  variety,  who 
urge  them  to  do  their  worst. 

Hundreds  of  pages  could  be  filled,  just  in  follow- 
ing out  to  their  ramifications,  the  holds  with  which 


26  Criminal  Ty^pes 

catch-as-catch-can  gamesters  alone  throw  crime- 
driven  lads.  More  often  than  the  reverse,  "sporting'* 
induces  the  first  criminal  offense;  and  still  more  often 
the  gaming  confirms  the  offender.  It  does  firstly, 
because  the  gambling  mania  is  less  insistent  and 
tenacious  only  than  abnormal  mating  hunger,  by 
which  it  is  commonly  aggravated;  secondly,  for  the 
reason  that  a  "killing"  at  gaming  seems  so  often 
to  offer  the  only  way  out ;  and  thirdly,  in  that  a  tyro 
will  as  likely  beat  professional  gamblers  at  their 
games,  as  a  "bush  league"  base-ball  team  the  best 
of  them  all. 

And  so,  after  all,  the  chosen  path  of  criminals  is 
far  from  rose-strewn.  "Big"  and  "little,"  and  "les- 
ser" grafting  and  gambling  "fleas"  land  on  their 
"backs"  and  "bite  'em." 

Then,  as  if  to  make  certain  the  job  shall  be  com- 
pleted after  the  plans  of  Mephisto,  the  State  stings 
the  budding  criminal  to  social  death  through  parol- 
ing him  time  and  again  from  prisons  wherein  he  had 
taken  on  not  enough  of  any  kind  of  skill  to  make  a 
decent  living  with  it  for  himself — say  nothing  of 
for  a  wife  and  family.  Hence,  naturally,  if  not 
perforce,  he  resumes  the  whirl  around  the  criminal 
circle. 

Is  it,  then,  that  the  State  itself  is  in  appreciable 
degree  responsible  for  its  criminals  of  all  grades  and 
types.'*  It  is,  beyond  peradventure.  It  is,  primarily 
as  hereinbefore  stated.     It  is  further  in  allowing 


Typal  Earmarks  27 

sprouting  "roughnecks"  to  run  as  they  list  at  all 
hours  of  the  night.  It  is  further  still  in  not  estab- 
lishing State  control  over  such  children,  through 
parents  with  whom  the  aim  should  be  to  hold  them 
to  natural  care  of  their  offspring.  Where  that  can- 
not be  done,  the  State  should  assume  full  educative 
and  disciplinary  direction,  and  do  it  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment. 

Vicarious  cases  of  the  kind  should  be  followed 
through  to  the  logical  eijd.  When  it  gets  down  to 
self-preservation  as  against  the  nurture  of  the  most 
natural  of  criminals,  the  State  needs  must  step  in 
and  extend  the  helping  hand,  as  well  as  establish 
the  whip  hand  in  minimizing  the  causes  of,  and  mo- 
tives for,  the  criminal. 

During  recent  decades,  the  States  generally  have 
contrariwise  motivated  for  crime  sequentially  em- 
phasized, through  attempted  mating  with  reforma- 
tive processes  of  cross-fire  banalities,  and  worse. 

Out  of  laudable  desire  to  subject  tempest-tossed 
humans  to  the  least  possible  of  punitive  discipline, 
the  States  have  suffered  introduction  into  prison  cur- 
riculums  of  distractions  that  disorder,  even  disin- 
tegrate reformative  measures,  as  for  examples : 

(1)  Stated  periods  of  free  conversation  between 
inmates  have  been  stretched  to  all-pervading  pro- 
miscuous chatter,  the  most  of  it  entirely  foreign  to 
reformative  endeavor. 

Such  as  relating  by  Ikey  the  "Starker  Kid,"  how 


28  Crimi/naX  Types 

he  "blimped"  on  the  "bean"  with  a  blackjack  this  or 
that  wayfarer,  bears  intimate  relation  to  the  fol- 
lowing count.  It  does,  because  "promiscuous  chat- 
ter" will  hold  up  any  kind  of  work.  Concentration 
is  killed  by  it ;  hence  it  is  not  tolerated  in  free- 
life  occupations,  and  hence  to  fix  the  habit  of  it 
in  a  prisoner  is  seriously  to  handicap  him. 

(2)  Paroles  are  governed  commonly  by  mere  con- 
duct, rather  than  by  most  material  industrial  and 
associated  averages :  a  fatal  retrogression,  in  itself 
not  balanced  by  the  total  of  alleged  progressive 
measures  instituted  during  recent  years.  He  is  a 
mental  dud  of  a  self-determining  criminal  indeed, 
who  won't  play  up  to  that  hand  and  "be  good" 
on  the  surface,  while  planning  to  "stall'  as  to  activ- 
ities cardinal  to  his  social  rehabilitation. 

(3)  The  tone  of  amusement  and  the  spirit  of 
play  has  been  reduced,  the  one  to  the  level  of  the 
crumb-grubbing,  dance-hall  rounder;  the  other  to 
match  the  mode  of  the  man-mauling  brute.  Too  nice 
distinctions  need  not  be  ma(Je  in  either  case.  They 
should  not,  in  fact,  be  attempted  on  any  field  of  rec- 
reation where  red-blooded  lads  foregather;  but  such 
as  bestial  brutality  carrying  homosexual  suggestion 
should  be  nipped  religiously  in  the  budding,  else  the 
depraved  instincts  of  tlie  minor  percentage  will  be 
taken  on  gradually  by  the  major  percentage,  and  in 
degree  by  all. 

Just  because  general  assembly  for  free  play  af- 


Typal  Earmarks  29 

fords  abnormal  units  the  best  chance  to  imbue  their 
betters  with  the  bad,  is  just  why  the  latter  should 
be  most  carefully  guarded  by  State  agents  on  recre- 
ative fields.  The  memory  of  "roughneck"  sexual 
manifestations  abides  in  the  minds  of  lads,  and 
constantly  stands  athwart  of  efforts  to  enlist  their 
undivided    attention   for  fundamental   results. 

Periods  of  play  should  be,  as  they  are  not,  so 
planned  as  to  coincide  with  free-life  recreative  hours. 
Also,  the  periods  should  be  capitalized  only  in  the 
sense  of  needed  exercise,  beyond  which  prison  play 
is,  on  its  very  face,  non-reformative.  Nothing  short 
of  all-around  intensive  instruction,  prosecuted  in 
accordance  with  what  will  be  the  free-life  exactions 
upon  the  grossly  ignorant  and  unskilled,  will  work 
for  their  social  reclamation.  They  must  take  up 
many  loose  stitches,  and  do  it  within  a  time  allow- 
ance that   is   meagre. 

(4)  Camaraderie  as  between  officers  and  inmates 
is  carried  to  contempt-breeding  familiarity;  and 
freely-sprinkled  cursing  charged  with  foul  sugges- 
tion, binds  the  "contempt."  Arraignment  of  such 
manifestations  may  seem  far-fetched,  if  not  trivial. 
Very  positively  it  is  neither.  The  refonnative  regime 
that  suffers  loose  and  foul-mouthed  relations  be- 
tween officers  and  inmates  cannot,  by  any  possibility, 
express  a  wholly  worthwhile  purpose.  The  moral 
tonus  of  the  place  will  be  let  down  appreciably ; 
general  laxness  will  be  the  rule, 


30  Criminnl  Types 

Aside  from  the  fact  that  "Hello,  Bill!"  relations 
wrongly  expressed  commonize  and  corrupt,  they 
tempt  lads  to  make  a  foil  of  them,  to  the  end  that 
they  may  be  as  lazy  and  shiftless  as  they  dare  be. 

And  so,  since  the  type  of  correctional  plant  in 
question  will  rather  establish  than  reform  all  types 
of  criminals,  it  is  up  to  heads  of  houses  of  correction 
to  run  them  true  to  reformative  form.  This,  spite 
of  both  outside  and  inside  pressure  for  fallacious 
methods,  even  though  the  "heads"  must  yield  a  cheap, 
ephemeral,  and  at  bottom  spurious  popularity,  in 
quest  of  measures  that  strike  in  and  take  root. 

Such  measures  will  not  issue  from  minds  obssessed 
by  biological  theories,  stretched  to  the  breaking  point 
in  favor  of  their  furtherance;  nor  from  the  brains 
of  stubornly  purblind  mortals  who  refuse  advanced 
tools  of  approved  temper.  They  probably  will  origi- 
nate with,  and  they  certainly  will  be  applied  by, 
middle-of-the-road  criminologists,  who  understand 
why,  to  the  very  dregs,  it  is,  that  the  person  given 
generally  to  loose,  spineless  practice,  is  reformatively 
less  serviceable  only  than  the  person  wedded  to  re- 
strictive, hide-bound,  single-seeing  theory.  Either 
way,  the  criminologist  must  strike  the  justifiable 
mean ;  shall  he  allow  himself  to  be  ridden  by  fetichism, 
he  will  surely  foozle  essentially,  no  matter  what  the 
surface  signs. 

Whatever  his  type,  the  average  felon  is  usually 
a  singular  problem  and  a  complex  entity.     As  such 


Typal  Earmarks  31 

he  must  be  searched  out,  studied,  observed  when  and 
where  he  is  not  observing,  and  then  prescribed  for. 
His  exactions  in  full  will  not  be  made  known  at  any 
one  place,  at  any  one  time,  to  anyone  on  earth, 
through  any  one  means  known  to  man.  When  his 
limitations  are  mostly  made  manifest,  they  are  found 
to  be  relatively  much  the  same  as  those  of  the 
grand  average  of  the  common  herd  of  humans. 

Construe  the  criminal  as  you  will,  his  crying  need 
is  for  practical  help  to  put  on  knowledge  and  skill 
with  which  to  execute  his  social  duties.  He  can  well 
be  spared  frills,  thrills,  and  a  plethora  of  patting 
on  the  back;  but  not  unquestionable  suggestion  and 
example,  if  he  is  to  pull  up  and  win  out. 

To  school  him  not  to  lean,  is  first  aid  to  any  type 
of   criminal. 

To  school  the  public  to  plumb  to  the  cardinal 
causes  for  the  like  of  the  late,  Los  Angeles,  de- 
generative manifestations,  is  to  inform  the  public 
along  the  lines  of  the  conclusion  of  this  volume. 
It  is  also  to  disclose  the  deviltry,  directed  against 
the  young,  by  the  "camouflaged"  libertine  who  deals 
in  the  vicious  by-products  of  the  sporting  life. 
Hence,  the  writer  bites  again  and  again  at  the 
vicious-by-products  of  sport,  by  which  he,  himself, 
had  been  so  ruthlessly  disciplined,  when  a  unit  of  the 
professional  sporting  mass.  From  having  been 
"done"  at  it,  he  doesn't  have  to  guess. 


n 

THE  CRIMINAL  MIND 

Large  contentions  less  avail  than  instances  observed. 

Kipling. 

Rudyard  Kipling  has  been  an  adjustable  man 
among  men.  His  evenly-balanced  mind  has  sized  the 
stature  of  his  fellows.  He  has  nursed  no  crotchets 
by  which  to  be  betrayed  into  half-baked  "conten- 
tions." He  has  painted  with  pat  regard  for  time, 
place,  and  individuals,  whether  the  latter  wore  nose 
rings  or  royal  purple.  He  has  not  debased  a  broad 
culture  in  hectic  pursuit  of  dollars.  He  has  stuck 
to  a  staunch  last  and  striven  handsomely. 

Since  much  of  so  much  must  have  been  out  of 
the  generous  hand  of  Nature,  one  could  wish  Kip- 
ling had  studied  criminals  as  he  has  studied  other 
men,  and  that  his  "instances  observed"  thereof  were 
spread  as  he  would  spread  them  in  print  over  the 
globe. 

A  pen  like  Kipling's  would  go  far  to  clear  away 
mental  cobwebs,  spun  about  the  criminal  mind  by 
gourd-vine  protagonists  during  the  last  three  dec- 

33 


The  Criminal  Mind  33 

ades.    As  would  he  with  our  subject,  let  us  begin  at 
the  beginning : 

Whether  the  biblical  account  of  the  killing  of 
Abel  by  Cain  be  taken  as  inspired  writing,  or  as 
pure  myth  clothed  out  of  man's  imagination,  it  was 
the  first  criminal  act  imaged  by  human  conscious- 
ness. Also,  Cain's  reply,  "Am  I  my  brother's 
keeper?"  to  those  who  sought  the  murdered  Abel, 
shadows  forth  fundamentally  the  attitude  of  mind  of 
the  average  citizen  towards  the  felon  of  to-day.  It 
adumbrates,  as  well,  the  predilection  of  the  criminal, 
now  as  then,  to  hide  the  truth  with  a  smoke-screen 
of  subterfuge;  this,  cleverly  betimes,  as  in  Cain's 
case,  through  shunting  question  with  question, 
though  the  more  common  and  vulgar  method  is  re- 
sort to  the  clumsily  covered  lie. 

Crass  criminals  give  America  cause  for  pause, 
only  because  America  either  directly  or  indirectly 
places  crime-weapons  in  their  hands.  Along  crimi- 
nous trails  they  blaze  they  usually  leave  easily-recog- 
nized marks.  In  the  main,  they  are  scrambed — 
brained  imitators,  whom  to  catch  and  trip  is  no  great 
chore. 

It  is  totally  different  as  to  the  self-determining, 
self-reliant,  mentally  keen  and  resourceful  criminal, 
who  is  nearly  callous  to  the  effects  of  criminousness, 
and  who  seeks  life's  zest  through  matching  wits  with 
agents  of  the  law. 

Criminals  of  the  latter  class  will  meet  you  good- 


34j  Criminal  Types 

naturedly  in  ethical  argument  on  your  chosen 
ground,  where  they  will  catch  you  unawares  "if  you 
don't  watch  out." 

For  example,  you  expatiate  on  individual  social 
service  as  a  duty,  and  on  the  cumulative  blessings 
which  would  accrue  therefrom. 

"Fine!"  replies  our  man,  and  adds:  "But  how 
many  are  rendering  that  kind  of  service?  How  many 
besides  those  who  make  a  'soft'  living  at  it,  and  those 
who  first  gouged  and  got  theirs?" 

You  declare  that  line  of  argument  doesn't  cover 
the  question  of  individual  responsibility ;  that  it 
doesn't  answer  for  a  thief  to  point  other  social 
slackers. 

"All  right,"  rebuts  Thief,  "but  why  ring  all  of 
the  solemn  bells  on  the  retailers?  Why  not  sound 
the  curfew  on  a  batch  of  the  big  bandits,  and  land 
them  where  you  land  hard-pressed  'pickers'?" 

It's  waxing  a  bit  awkward,  because  Thief's  query 
plumbs  to  the  crux  of  the  question;  a  plumbing  he 
cunningly  elects  shall  put  society  on  the  defensive. 
That  won't  do,  so  you  switch  and  let  fall  your  king 
card  in  challenge  to  him  to  square  criminous  conduct 
with  the  enacting  predicates  of  divine  law. 

If  he  believes,  after  a  fashion,  in  a  Supreme  Being, 
you  have  him  there  to  a  degree ;  albeit  the  belief  sel- 
dom strikes  deeper  than  fear  of  far-removed  con- 
sequence, the  sting  of  which  he  is  led  to  depend  upon 
earth-born  vicars  to  draw. 


The  Criminal  Mind  35 

Finally  to  muss  you  up  mentally,  and  in  part 
to  remove  the  moral  stigma  with  which  the  Al- 
mighty stamps  such  as  thieving,  he  will  cite  the 
twelfth-hour  repentance  and  shriving  of  the  thief 
on  the  Cross. 

Here,  again,  your  counter  attack  won't  carry, 
unless  you  can  drive  home  the  historical  fact  that 
the  thief  in  question  had  thieved  against  his  intrinsic 
grain;  that  he  had  several  times  started  out  to  seek 
the  Saviour  to  be  shriven  of  the  unnatural  load  he 
had  borne ;  and  that  he  was  turned  back  by  fear  of 
fatal  strokes  at  the  hands  of  members  of  the  capital 
band  of  murderous  marauders  with  whom  he  had 
ridden. 

The  crucial  point  to  which  we  have  been  leading 
up  is,  of  course,  that  America  deserves  the  flippant, 
murderous  footpad  of  all  nationalities;  first  off  be- 
cause she  has  made  no  serious  effort  to  understand 
what  he  is,  and  why  he  is  what  he  is ;  and  secondly, 
for  the  reason  that  she  has  failed  miserably  to  match 
either  the  subjective  or  objective  tools  he  has  era- 
ployed. 

Essentially,  America  has  gone  out  of  her  way  to 
make  the  master  criminal  welcome,  and  then  to  wash 
his  blood-stained  hands  for  him.  More  than  that, 
she  has  insisted  not  only  upon  his  being  what  he 
isn't,  either  mentally,  morally  or  physically;  but 
further  upon  attaching  to  him  the  least  modicum 
of  responsibility  for  his  criminal  acts.     Having  fur- 


36  Criminal  Types 

nished  him  with  the  complete  formula  for  anti-social 
thoughts  and  deeds,  she  naturally  gets  the  one  from 
his  lawless  tongue,  and  the  other  out  of  the  muzzle 
of  his  automatic. 

Nor  does  the  responsibility  of  America  rest  solely 
unto  herself  for  the  thieves  and  thugs  she  has  bidden 
to  her  bosom,  and  there  nurtured  them  with  national 
pabulum  that  soured  on  their  stomachs,  or  allowed 
them  to  be  so  nurtured.  Thereof,  she  has  compli- 
cated the  crime  problem  the  world  over. 

Time  and  again  the  forefathers  warned  against 
overfeeding  of  liberty  and  underwriting  of  patriot- 
ism, foreseeing  that  did  they  warn  in  vain,  it  would 
be  a  question  of  only  a  comparatively  few  years 
when  America  would  lose  her  autonomous  character, 
and  with  the  loss,  her  intrinsically  singular  meaning 
in  the  matter  of  human  progress. 

That  sterile  hour  probably  will  not  strike.  Ameri- 
cans look  up  with  faith  and  strength ;  yet  they  drift 
with  hyphenates  and  social  wolves ;  with  hyphenates 
who  constantly  press  for  group  expression  encircled 
by  the  restrictive  collar  of  creed;  and  with  social 
wolves  become  so  bold  that  they  utter  lobo  howls  of 
defiance  on  public  thoroughfares,  where  they  are 
suffered  to  sink  poisonous  fangs  into  the  very  vitals 
of  Constitutional  law. 

With  the  former  we  have  begun  to  deal  by  deter- 
mining to  make  it  our  business  to  know  that  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  America  shall  issue  from  the  mouths 


Tlie  Criminal  Mind  37 

of  aliens  who  hold  mentally  in  reserve  not  a  thing 
that  crosses  that  oath.  This,  primarily,  through 
lengthening  the  probation  period  prior  to  issuance 
of  final  papers  granting  citizenship ;  and  secondarily, 
through  an  undercurrent  of  public  opinion  so  strong 
as  against  the  conditional  patriot,  as  to  make  that 
opinion  carry  for  what  it  should  and  must. 

With  social  wolves,  it  is  again  "totally  different." 
It  is  totally  different  because  an  appreciable  per- 
centage of  them  are  the  offspring  of  Americans  whose 
ancestry  strikes  back  native-born  for  several  gen- 
erations. They  have  been  mainly  the  product  of 
American  life  and  living,  ways  and  means. 

True  enough,  the  tussle  has  been  and  is  with  alien 
criminals  and  undesirables  who  recently  have  sieved 
into  America ;  but  that  fact  doesn't  let  America 
out  for  her  own  brood  of  social  backsliders ;  neither 
for  the  manner  in  which  she  has  compromised  with 
the  full  bandit  crew,  constantly  mounting  in  num- 
bers, and  constantly  less  regardful  of  law  and 
order. 

In  part,  at  least,  the  mind  of  the  criminal  who 
operates  in  America,  is  American-made.  There  is 
no  getting  away  from  that  fact,  and  there  is  noth- 
ing hidden  or  strange  about  it. 

Take  a  case  common  to  alien  criminals  and  po- 
tential criminals:  up  to  last  accounts,  Italy's  Cam- 
orrists  and  Mafiausists  ran  to  illegal  rope  under 
indifferent  hindrance  by  Italy;  yet  they  much  prefer 


88  Criminal  Types 

America  as  a  camping  ground.  Why  ?  Why  for  the 
simple  reason  that  loose  as  is  Italy's  legal  hold 
upon  them,  the  like  grip  of  America  is  even  less 
binding.  Furthermore,  money-making,  money- 
spreading,  and  license-breeding  America  is  ripest  for 
loot. 

In  no  civilized  country  on  earth,  right  now,  when 
other  countries  are  in  the  throes  of  disintegrating 
aftermath  of  the  World  War,  can  an  individual, 
of  his  own  volition,  commit  capital  crime,  and  count 
chances  of  immunity  from  commensurate  punish- 
ment in  his  favor,  as  he  counts  them  in  America. 

That  being  the  precise  case  stripped  of  lame  ex- 
cuse and  lamer  balderdash,  why  should  it  be  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  declare  the  functioning,  as  to 
his  specific  acts,  of  the  mind  of  the  capital  criminal 
in  America?  And  by  "capital,"  we  do  not  mean  to 
point  the  ruthless  bungler  who  employs  clumsy 
weapons  clumsily ;  but  the  plausible,  brainy  crook, 
who  cunningly  "plays  'em  all"  against  rightly- 
ordered  social  edicts,  which  he  instinctively 
hates. 

Actually  look  into  and  beyond  the  eyes  of  the 
"king-pin"  criminal,  while  you  seek  to  impress  him 
with  the  just  might  of  impartially  executed  law. 
Note  how  a  hard  glint  will  strike  through  the  eyes, 
even  though  from  ulterior  motives  he  tries  to  hide  it, 
and  pretends  to  follow  you  reservedly. 

Far  from  being  the  pitiable  dunce  and  dupe  he 


The  Criminal  Mind  39 

is  so  commonly  rated,  the  by-choice  American  crimi- 
nal of  high  grade  is  the  most  dangerous,  least  ex- 
cusable, coolly-calculating  menace  to  the  social  order 
the  world  has  ever  known.  He  is  the  most  dangerous 
because  he  is  the  most  resourceful,  and  has  the 
least  regard  for  human  life;  he  is  the  least  ex- 
cusable for  the  reason  that  no  country  has  ever 
borne  with  liim  and  tried  to  help  him  pull  up,  as 
America  has  borne  with  him  and  tried  to  help  him 
pull  up ;  and  he  is  flippantly  the  rest,  and  more, 
because  the  bids  for  him  in  America  are  made  by 
exactly  those  whose  first  business  it  should  be  to 
overreach  him. 

Did  he  fail  to  make  the  most  of  those  bids,  he 
indeed  would  be  the  misfit  "moron"  agreeably  with 
alleged  "scientific"  classification  of  him.  Contrari- 
wise, he  "plays  'em  all":  the  judge;  the  patrolman; 
the  politician ;  the  social  worker ;  the  reformer,  ac- 
tive and  passive ;  probation  oflficers ;  the  prison  agent 
of  high  degree  he  knows  must  play  up  to  the  merry- 
go-round  cult  of  reformers,  if  he  would  hold  his 
job;  and,  in  a  pinch  in  order  to  bag  bigger  game, 
he  will  "double-cross"  any  one  or  all,  if  he  is  sure 
he  can  keep  the  double-crossing  under  cover. 

In  so  far  as  he  shunts  essential  human  values  out 
of  his  mind,  he  is  a  fool,  since  true  happiness  is  not 
for  the  thief  or  thug;  but  his  material  concepts  fit 
human  nature  closely  enough  to  enable  him  to  go 
after  and  get  pretty  nearly  what  he  wants,  in  and 


40  Criminal  Types 

out  of  prison,  while  advisedly  making  use  of  all 
of  the  long  odds  in  his  favor.  Doing  it,  he  fears 
only  higher-up  spoilsmen  who  sacrifice  criminal 
pawns. 

Maybe  he  could,  and  maybe  he  couldn't  enter  a 
room,  envisage  the  objects  therein  at  a  glance,  then 
step  into  an  adjoining  room  and  tale  off  most  of 
those  objects.  Probably  you  couldn't  do  so;  but 
if  you  couldn't,  you  wouldn't  put  it  down  conclu- 
sively that  you  had  thereby  demonstrated  your  ar- 
rested mental  development. 

Largely  because  of  such  easily-misleading  "tests," 
America  has  been  at  meticulous  pains  to  school  the 
criminal  to  believe  himself  irresponsible  for  his  illegal 
acts ;  this,  seemingly  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  the 
mark  of  the  true  moron  would  rightly  attach  to  him, 
did  he  fail  to  grind  all  of  such  gratuitous  grist  com- 
ing to  his  mill. 

If  America  elects  to  classify  the  criminal  exactly 
as  he  would  be  classified;  and  then  to  dispose  of 
him  exactly  as  he  would  be  disposed  of,  that's  Amer- 
ica's business.  His  business  is  to  promote  the  call- 
ing of  false  turns  on  him  in  favor  of  easy  going  at 
his  chosen  calling;  and  he  attends  strictly  to  busi- 
ness, without  care  otherwise  for  what  you  tag  him 
mentally. 

Ostensibly  as  opposed  to  the  "business,'*  he  will 
play  any  card  for  a  consideration  along  any  line 
you  suggest ;  but  not  for  a  moment  does  he  lose  sight 


The  Criminal  Mind  41 

of  his  cardinal  aim,  which  is  to  be  a  crook  hailed  by 
crooks. 

Lay  gentlemen  particularly  state  the  case  in  words 
opposed  to  those  which  precede;  but  just  because 
they  are  lay  gentlemen  they  do  not,  and  they  cannot, 
by  any  possibility,  state  the  case  as  it  is. 

Being  a  real  criminologist  presupposes  long  years 
of  consecrated  study  of  and  contact  with  criminals, 
in  their  midst.  It  also  postulates  a  broad  culture, 
inclusive  of  the  specific  bearing  of  genetic  parallels 
and  the  reverse:  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  close 
study  of  such  as  the  etiology  of  crime,  and  of  indi- 
vidual and  race  psychology. 

Notwithstanding,  lay  gentlemen  have  written,  dur- 
ing recent  years,  most  of  the  basic  specifications  for 
the  social  rehabilitation,  by  institutional  correction, 
of  the  habitual,  predal  felon.  Result?  Let  a  par- 
allel case  give  answer : 

Before  the  discovery  of  the  anti-toxin  for  diph- 
theria, suppose  a  criminologist  to  have  had  a  strong 
humanitarian  leaning  to  be  of  active  service  in  the 
discovery  and  use  of  that  anti-toxin.  Assume  fur- 
ther that  he  conned  a  few  chemical  paragraphs, 
messed  about  in  hospitals,  tinkered  at  synthesis  and 
the  reverse  in  the  laboratory,  and  wrote  copiously 
from  his  treasured  notebook:  how  far,  think  you, 
would  he  have  gotten  in  his  quest? 

The  parallel  is  not  perfect,  to  be  sure,  but  it  will 
serve  to  point  these  vital  facts:     (1)   The  ninety- 


4i&  Criminal  Types 

and-nine  of  puttering,  basically  uninformed,  ama- 
teur penologists  have  been  primarily  a  nuisance,  and 
the  thousandth  has  been  useless  in  the  work.  (2) 
Secondarily,  they  have  been  much  more  than  a  mere 
nuisance,  in  that  they  have  made  it  their  business 
to  pull  down  the  framework  of  rational  reformative 
regimes  put  up  by  actual  criminologists.  (3)  And 
in  the  stead  of  that  deleted  or  destroyed,  they  have 
rung  in  either  puerile  activities  and  inactivities,  or 
sporting-monger  activities  to  the  point  of  offense 
against  God,  against  Nature,  and  against  the  social 
exactions  upon  the  criminal. 

The  criminal  has  not  concerned  himself  about  the 
social  exactions  upon  him.  He  has  not  because  he 
isn't  built  that  way,  and  because  he  hasn't  had  to 
do  so.  Those  highest  up  in  reformative  councils 
have  obligingly  lettered  reformative  measures  to  his 
hand.  Therefore  he  is  always  on  his  toes  to  ding 
fulsome  praise  of  them  in  indiscriminating  ears,  while 
naturally  condemning  those  he  cannot  fool  all  of 
the  time. 

So  much,  in  part  measure,  is  of  the  criminal  pot 
as  it  boils ;  and  so  much  tells  why  the  criminal  stands 
pat  with  commanding  cards  gratuitously  dealt  him. 
When  society  shall  have  matched  his  all-around  play 
in  the  matter,  will  be  time  enough  for  society  to  be- 
little mental  gifts  with  which  he  is  enabled  to  euchre 
the  land's  combined  agents  of  the  law. 

In  any  case,  relief  is  in  sight.     The  bulk  of  pre- 


The  Criminal  Mind  43 

datory  criminals  are  instinctive  pug-uglies.  The  in- 
stinctive pug-ugly  bids  fair  to  be  America's  repre- 
sentative hero.  United  States  Senators  and  other 
governmental  celebrities,  who,  with  their  women,  oc- 
cupied box  seats  at  the  Dempsey-Carpentier  "box- 
ing"— please  don't  laugh — "exhibition,"  so  attested 
by  travelling  hundreds  of  miles  to  occupy  those  seats. 

Hence,  why  not  groom  the  parasitic  thug  for  the 
National  Congress,  under  the  proviso  that  he  would 
make  attempt  there  to  beat  a  modicum  of  common 
sense  into  the  heads  of  certain  of  his  confreres  ?  The 
odds  against  his  success  would  be  nearly  prohibitive, 
to  be  sure ;  but  millions  of  Americans  would  relish 
his  try  at  it.  Then,  too,  the  pug  would  stand  a 
chance  of  being  of  some  use  in  the  human  scheme,  the 
which  he  has  not  been  up  to  the  present  time:  unless 
to  image  and  suggest  brawling  and  blood-letting  to 
up-coming  kids,  is  useful. 

Let  America  get  after  and  stay  after  her  pug 
and  mulcting  parasites,  along  with  her  conscience- 
less money-changers  and  spenders,  after  the  manner 
in  which  the  Christ-man  got  after  them,  and  the 
criminal  will  at  once  take  up  quite  somewhat  of  the 
oblique  slack  of  his  mind.  Until  America  does  just 
exactly  that,  both  in  and  out  of  prison,  recidivistic 
criminals  will  ride  the  rougher  shod  in  America,  in 
constantly  increasing  numbers. 

History  seems  to  have  it  that  a  contagious  hu- 
man hysteria  recurs  in  cycles ;  that  the  hysteria  usu- 


44  Criminal  Types 

ally  roots  in  an  aimless  spirit  of  unrest ;  and  that 
when  the  wheel  of  time  points  the  fatal  number, 
myriads  of  advanced  humans  yield  their  grip  on 
instrinsic  values. 

Initial  expression  of  the  mental  einiption  has  usu- 
ally taken  the  form  of  choromania,  as  witness  ancient 
Sparta's  grand  march  to  corrupted  morals  via  the 
nude  dance ;  also,  America's  present  peek-a-boo  gyra- 
tions, remindful  alternately  of  nothing  so  much  as 
the  lumbering  clown  bear,  and  "monkey-on-a-stick." 

One  could  make  better  than  a  crude  guess  as  to 
the  psychological  sequences  involved  in  the  connec- 
tion between  the  semi-bestial  dance,  and  concomitant 
blunting  of  the  finer  sensibilities.  One  could,  be- 
cause sex-charged,  hysterial  dancing  unchecked,  runs 
in  the  end  almost  inevitably  either  to  conscious  or 
unconscious  brutality  of  one  or  another  form  and 
degree. 

In  the  beginning,  the  form  may  but  slightly  offend 
that  which  is  natural,  and  the  degree  may  seem  to  be 
as  inconsequent ;  but  the  cumulative  effect  of  both 
as  suggested  and  imaged  is  to  commonize  a  low  level 
of  human  expression ;  and  since  a  low  level  of  human 
expression  demands  varied  excitement  pyramided, 
the  final  result  will  depend  upon  whether  a  people  do 
or  do  not  put  overhead  check  on  that  kind  of  ex- 
pression. 

At  the  Jersey  City  prize-fight,  Americans  very 
palpably  did  just  the  reverse  who  fattened  the  purses 


The  Criminal  Mind  45 

of  parasitic  pugs  and  their  purveyors  there  as- 
sembled. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  such  as  capsheaf  criminals, 
gamblers,  pool-room  sharks,  bookmakers,  race-track 
"touts,"  and  members  and  ex-members  of  the  won't 
work  "frat"  were  at  the  ringside,  drawn  as  by  an 
irresistible  magnet  to  their  natural  element.  But 
think  on  representatives  of  a  nation's  dignity  and 
sanity  mixing  with  the  motley  mass,  while  entering 
into  the  spirit  of  the  brutalizing  abomination ! 

Save  their  women,  and  say  how  much  the  minds  of 
honorables  of  that  kidney  have  "on"  the  criminal 
mind?  Essentially  how  much  have  they,  taking  into 
account  their  blood  and  bringing-up,  and  the  blood 
and  bringing-up  of  the  average  criminal?  How 
about  the  mind  of  a  public  servant  who  does  not 
know  a  bestial,  crime-breeding  thing  when  he  sees 
it:  or,  if  he  does  recognize  its  basic  baseness,  still 
clamps  moral  handcuffs  on  his  conscience  in  order 
to  indulge  a  natural  or  acquired  predilection  for 
brutish  expression? 

May  such  an  one  be  held  safe  either  to  help  frame 
or  interpret  the  laws  of  his  land,  on  which  the  on- 
coming generations  of  American  youth  must  guide? 

Could  any  of  the  revered  forefathers  have  been 
dragged  to  such  as  current  "boxing  exhibitions" — 
again,  "don't  laugh" — other  than  in  the  same  as 
chains?  If  they  could  not  have  been,  were  they  men- 
tal, moral  and  physical  "hayseeds"  of   their  day: 


46  Criminal  Types 

or,  do  certain  of  their  successors  fundamentally  flout 
their  oaths  of  office,  through  literally  flinging  the 
most  pernicious  of  suggestion  and  example  into 
the  very  faces  of  America's  budding  lads  and 
lassies? 

To  what,  at  bottom,  more  than  any  one  other  con- 
crete cause,  was  the  late  debacle  due,  if  not  to  Ger- 
many's brutally-planned  persistence  in  making  brut- 
ish sport  a  part  of  the  common  and  uncommon  edu- 
cation of  her  young  males?  If  you  are  inclined  to 
pass  the  query,  question  closely  any  one  of  thous- 
ands of  German  ex-students  and  soldiers  whose  face 
bears  cicatrized  scars  of  the  sword's  edge  or  point, 
and  get  your  answer. 

The  reply  of  the  sporting  mad  of  America  would 
be  that  Germany  advisedly  fashioned  the  minds  of 
her  lads  for  alleged  defensive  war  with  her  enemies, 
real  and  imaginary;  whereas  such  as  prize  fighting 
consei'ves  the  all-around  stamina  of  American  youth, 
to  be  employed  in  the  pursuits  of  peace,  and  that  it 
is  meant  to  do  no  more. 

Rot,  that,  just  plumb  rot!  Rot  of  the  kind  no 
thinking  man  would  dare  attempt  to  justify  on 
bended  knee.  Prize  fighting  "is  meant"  first,  last, 
and  all  of  the  time,  to  pack  the  purses  of  human 
parasites ;  to  pack  purses  that  are  unpacked  to  beat 
the  law,  both  God-made  and  man-made,  from  every 
possible  angle.  To  hold  else  is  either  not  to  know 
the  game,  or  not  to  want  to  know  it. 


The  Crvniinal  Mind  47 

Prize  fighting  is  war  in  miniature  between  two  men. 
It  is,  moreover,  up  to  the  point  of  a  killing,  the  most 
merciless  of  war.  It  is,  because  "top-notch"  fighters 
of  the  several  "weights"  are  rare  birds  who  are  prac- 
tically unbeatable  in  their  prime,  so  long  as  they  hold 
to  Nature's  laws.  Those  who  go  against  them  are 
usually  as  good  as  "licked"  before  they  enter  the 
ring.  Therefore  the  hundreds  of  "marked"  would  be 
"cham-pee-ons"  who  eke  out  a  living  serving  essen- 
tially as  punching  bags  for  their  physical  betters ; 
and  therefore  the  former  are  marked  with  such  as 
ear  drums  put  out  of  commission ;  broken  noses, 
wrists  and  hands ;  impaired  eyesight ;  and  internal 
traumatic  wounds  that  are  fated  to  rise  up  and 
curse  them  along  at  about  life's  middle  course. 

Pretty  picture  in  so  far  as  painted,  isn't  it,  with 
which  to  stir  the  imagination  and  ambitions  of  your 
boy?  And  mark  you,  the  vicious  by-products  of 
pugism  have  been  but  barely  indicated  herein,  as 
for  instance:  at  least  one-third  of  the  sixteen-hun- 
dred-thousand  dollars  of  gate  money  of  the  Dempsey- 
Carpentier  fight  will  circulate  as  disappearing  dol- 
lars. The  bulk  of  them  will  disappear  from  legiti- 
mate lanes  of  trade  and  circulate  through  corrosive 
sporting  channels,  the  which  are  a  drag  upon  the 
general  turnover  of  business.  What's  more  import- 
ant, they  will  be  placed  so  as  to  further  menace  the 
morals  of  the  young.  And  all  will  be  managed 
mainly  by  th(^se  who  pack  smug  chuckles  over  the 


48  Criminal  Types 

apish  credulity  of  legions  of  the  self-nominated  au- 
gust. 

This  seemingly  misplaced  diversion  is  meant  to 
drive  it  home,  with  the  final  word,  that  sport  over- 
done at  once  locks  arms  with  the  criminal,  and  under- 
cuts at  the  foundation  of  the  national  structure. 

No  matter  what  form  of  expression  the  non-pro- 
ducer may  affect ;  or  by  what  specious  arguments 
he  seeks  to  establish  that  form  of  expression,  he  re- 
mains a  non-producing  leech. 

Did  the  professional  sporting  pug  peddle  his  ne- 
farious wares  after  having  done  an  honest  day's  work, 
it  would  still  be  bad  enough ;  but  he  doesn't,  he  never 
has  done  so,  and  he  never  will.  He  knows  that  always 
of  the  mass  an  appreciable  percentage  of  sporting- 
bug  bitten  individuals  can  be  relied  upon  to  sponsor 
his  spurious  offerings.  Therefore  he  plays  up  to 
them,  and  down  to  that  which  the  Creator  expects 
of  every  man. 

However,  that  actual  producers  have  to  carry  the 
drones  of  the  human  hive,  is  b}'  no  means  the  prime 
ingredient  of  the  foul  mess.  That  resides  in  spiritual 
loss  not  to  be  calculated  in  dollars  and  cents:  a 
spiritual  loss  which  side-tracks  rational  thinking  and 
doing,  while  it  engenders  *'  a  spirit  of  unrest  men 
miscall  delight." 

The  criminal  mind  functions  exactly  as  does  that 
of  the  socially  prominent,  if  not  ethically  discrimi- 
nating woman,  who,  in  a  late  newspaper  item,  de- 


The  Crhninal  Mind  49 

clares  for  the  blood-spilling  at  Jersey  City  because 
she  thinks  it  was  "wonderfull}'  sportsmanlike."  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  there  wasn't  a  thing  "sportsman- 
like" about  that  brutal  battle.  There  wasn't,  if 
for  none  other  than  the  reason  that  Carpentier  gave 
away  nearly  twenty  pounds  to  probably  the  hard- 
est-boiled, two-fisted  fighter  of  his  weight  the  prize 
ring  as  ever  known.  That,  alone,  spelled  the  "count" 
for  Carpentier.  Furthermore,  the  true  metal  of  the 
clan  rings  in  Carpentier's  contention  to  the  effect 
that  he  broke  the  thumb  of  his  right  hand  in  the  "first 
round."  Had  he  done  so,  he  could  not  have  rocked 
Dempsey  with  that  hand,  as  he  did,  in  the  "second 
round.'* 

A  "sportsmanlike"  proposition  presumes  a  fair 
fighting  chance  for  either  contestant.  Carpentier 
didn't  have  a  ghost  of  a  chance.  American  pugs 
knew  it,  though  they  cannily  kept  the  odds  on  Demp- 
sey up,  so  as  to  attract  the  big  money  from  over- 
seas. 

Carpentier  floored,  battered,  bleeding,  doubled  up 
in  agony  and  gasping  for  breath,  symbolized  at  once 
the  spirit  of  the  prize  ring,  and  the  chance  the  layman 
has  when  he  stakes  his  money  against  the  under- 
ground machinations  of  those  who  "toil  not'*  and 
will  not  toil.  They  must  first  attract,  then  out- 
maneuver  honest  money.  They  do,  and  they  do  it 
while  poisoning  the  national  mind. 

Finally,  as  regards  claims  even  for  physical  better- 


60  Criininal  Types 

ment  accruing  from  brutalizing  sport:  Rot,  again, 
pure  rot.  Not  a  thing  attaclies  thereto  but  which 
Dame  Nature  offers  man  gratis  and  bountifully  out 
of  her  outstretched  hands. 

Have  you  ever,  really,  thought  it  all  over.''  If 
you  haven't,  make  haste  to  do  so.  God  will  not  hold 
you  guiltless  else;  for,  in  just  the  degree  men  fail 
to  realize  that  they  are  the  moral  "keepers"  of  His 
children,  they  will  be  held  responsible  by  Him  for 
those  of  them  that  take  on  the  criminal  mind  and 
stumble  on  with  it  to  the  social  discard. 

While  thinking  it  over,  watch  it  out  and  see  the 
sporting  thief,  and  thug,  primed  for  a  nefarious 
business  in  such  as  the  cigarette-soaked,  gambling 
poolroom. 


m 

THE  MORAL  CRIMINAL 

Dr.  Adler  says  there  are  10,000,000  feeble-minded 
people  in  our  country.  Well,  well:  it  isn't  as  bad  as 
we  thought. 

Passaic  News. 

Crime  Is  commonly  imaged  as  felonious  offense 
committed  against  the  public  law.  Definitions  of  the 
word  "crime"  are  likewise  restricted  in  meaning. 

The  common  idea  of  crime  is  natural,  and  the  legal 
definition  of  it  is  necessary,  albeit  crime  reaches  far 
beyond  casual  views  and  word-analysis.  In  the  final 
sieving,  anything  that  abets,  suggests  or  examples 
devilish  conduct  on  the  part  of  normal  humans,  is 
criminal. 

It  is  a  devilish  thing  to  do  individual  murder ;  but 
it  is  infinitely  more  devilish  to  so  gouge  and  mulct 
as  to  help  kill  the  chances  of  millions  of  fellow  beings 
to  bring  up  their  broods  as  children  have  a  right 
to  be  brought  up. 

It  is  a  spiteful  fling  of  Nature  that  monogamous 
mating  cannot  hold  the  oversexed  of  the  human 
species ;   yet   their  bestial    impulses    are   benign,   as 

5i 


62  Criminal  Types 

compared  with  the  persistence  of  the  public  press  in 
successively  pyramiding  detail  on  detail  of  the  nasty 
aftermath  of  the  expression  of  those  impulses. 
"News  is  news,"  yes ;  also,  nasty  news  is  nasty  news, 
concerning  which  the  moral  obligation  is  upon  the 
newspaper  fraternity  not  to  flaunt  it,  time  and  again, 
at  the  top,  under  spread-type  caption,  for  the  edifi- 
cation of  younglings.  The  writer  has  been  in  posi- 
tion to  know  that  the  bulk  of  newspaper  men  do  not 
relish  the  kind  of  mental  pabulum  they  feel  they 
are  practically  compelled  to  serve  to  a  percentage 
of  their  patrons.  Editors  and  the  like  are  usually 
staunch,  far-seeing  men  who  realize  fully  the  fateful 
suggestion  of  the  crime-breeding,  sexually-perverting 
print  they  hold  themselves  obliged  to  feature,  else 
be  beaten  to  it  by  competitors  with  narrative  a  part 
of  the  public  demand. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the 
sheet  which  should  decline  either  prominence  to,  or 
reiteration  of,  such  as  erotic  copy,  would  increase 
rather  than  yield  its  clientele.  To  believe  else  were 
to  believe  the  mind  of  the  average  citizen  to  be  re- 
duced to  a  very  low  level. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  average  reader  lends 
but  casual  eye  to  crime  and  sex-charged  stuff.  He 
turns  from  the  mere  headings  thereof  in  disgust. 
Did  he  follow  through  with  arrested  attention,  he 
would  be  impressed  with  the  carrying  power  of  the 
stuff,  and  take  measures  to  protect  his  kids  from  it. 


The  Moral  Criminal  53 

That  the  case  boils  down  to  impressionable  effect 
upon  the  babe  ^in  embryo,  is  sufficient  to  give  good 
men  pause  over  the  publication  of  such  as  prurient 
matter,  poisonous  to  the  last  degree  by  suggestion 
to  immature  minds.  Moreover,  to  deprive  unsocial 
and  anti-social  plungers  of  a  public  audience,  is 
one  of  the  best  ways  by  which  to  extract  the  tang 
from  their  obliquely-conceived  flings. 

The  criminal  feeds  on  the  pernicious  notoriety 
given  him  in  the  printed  page.  So  do  marital  globe- 
trotters. Hence,  a  common  publicity  of  dirt  oper- 
ates as  a  two-fold  menace  to  good  morals.  And 
mark  you,  however  specious  the  plea  for  the  pub- 
licity, the  menace  of  it  remains. 

In  any  case,  purveyors  of  news  will  do  well  by 
up-coming  lads  and  lassies^  through  pressing  the 
soft  pedal  for  dissonant  tones ;  by  passing  up  youth- 
poisoning  narrative  to  those  who  have  a  natural 
predilection  for  that  kind  of  print.  They  will  do 
well  to  do  it  over  their  signatures,  and  thus  permit 
the  public  to  get  a  strangle  hold  on  the  few  who 
would  maim  budding  character  for  a  packed 
purse.  No  one  looks  for  such  a  change;  but 
until  some  such  measure  is  effected,  gentlemen  of 
the  press  may  not  wash  their  hands  of  crime  by 
suggestion. 

In  effect,  the  bulk  of  the  public  press  of  America 
stand  in  no  better  moral  light  than  does  the  foul- 
mouthed  gossip  who  goes  from  house  to  house  ped- 


64  Criminal  Types 

dling  filthy  wares.  There  is  no  difference  in  principle 
between  the  two,  and  in  practice  only  what  demar- 
cates retailing  and  jobbing.  That,  not  only,  but 
doing  it  over  and  over  again,  with  but  such  details 
deleted  as  a  self-respecting  husband  would  hesitate 
to  impart  to  a  self-respecting  wife. 

^'Noblesse  oblige."  Let  those  on  whom  moral  lead- 
ership is  in  part  thrust,  and  in  part  assumed,  go  over 
their  own  lines  and  discourage  the  leprous. 

The  drone-bum  is  a  drag  on  the  public  purse,  but 
he  baldly  dresses  and  acts  the  part,  makes  no  pre- 
tentions, makes  no  apologies,  and  seldom  deals  from 
the  bottom. 

The  sport-parasite,  whose  name  is  legion,  and  who 
is  the  "four-flushing"  blood-brother  of  the  hand-me- 
out  peripatetic,  goes  about  it  differently.  He  affects 
spats,  the  last  wrinkle  in  waistcoats,  cane  and  gloves, 
feels  the  feel  of  silk,  boast  a  wardrobe  Beau  Brum- 
mel  would  have  envied,  poses  about  in  a  "Packard 
Six,"  and  wouldn't  appear  on  the  street  "on  a  bet" 
under  a  hat  a  day  out  of  style.  Also,  he  spreads 
"easy-money"  all  along  the  sporting  pike  from  base- 
ball to  the  bawd.  And  also,  the  high  finance,  "fake- 
scheme"  cult  of  him  alone  draw  down  annually  close 
to  five-hundred-million  dollars.  The  bill  is  paid 
mainly  out  of  lean  purses,  the  strings  to  which  have 
to  be  tightened,  to  the  end  that  parasitic  sporting 
mongers  may  give  their  dupes  "the  laugh." 

It  is  no  new  thing  for  the  plausible  parasite  to 


The  Moral  Criminal  55 

refuse  any  part  of  the  actual  social  load:  meaning, 
of  course,  the  sweating  and  tugging  necessary  to 
load  that  load.  Non-producing  knights  of  the  gilded 
circle  have  always  ridden  the  tiring  nation  to  its 
last  gasp.  But  it  remained  for  Anglo-Saxon  Chris- 
tians to  lend  unqualified  approval  to  intrinsic  drones, 
who  elect  at  the  best  to  play  for  their  "pile"  and 
make  hard  working  men  and  women  foot  the  bill ;  ,^nd 
at  the  worst,  to  make  every  possible  use  at  spurious 
sporting  activities  of  crooked  tools,  such  as  manipu- 
lation, inside  information,  and,  in  the  end,  the  con- 
fiscatory law  of  averages. 

Followers  in  America  of  the  Christ  lend  their 
money  not  only  to  the  ominous  business,  but  their 
moral  support  as  well;  followers,  mind  you,  osten- 
sibly of  Him  who  raged  at  money-mad  cheats,  and 
who  couldn't  abide  them  that  shift  labor  to  other 
backs. 

Many  there  will  be  to  bristle  over  the  leads  immedi- 
ately preceding;  still,  search  them  out  to  the  final 
throw,  and  it  will  be  found  that  at  least  ninety  per 
cent  of  them  either  pull  or  aim  to  pull  directly  or 
indirectly  at  strings  on  the  "rake  off."  This  from 
the  college  graduated  "sport"  who  heads  for  the 
gaming  limelight,  to  the  manufacturer  who  turns  out 
the  paraphernalia  of  blood-spilling  "pugs."^ 

Many,  bitten  by  the  malignant  sporting  bug,  be- 
lieve the  desideratum  of  life  consists  in  hardening 
oneself  to   give  and   take   the  greatest   amount   of 


66  Criminal  Types 

physical  punishment.     Mark  it:   to  give  and  take 
the  greatest  amount  of  physical  punishment. 

Why  take  the  punishment?  Why,  primarily,  say 
the  pugs,  to  the  end  that  one  may  take  care  of  one- 
self in  case  one  is  thuggishly  assaulted ;  and  second- 
arily, to  engage  at  forms  of  exercise  that  conserve 
longevity. 

Concerning  the  primary  proposition,  say  as  to 
how  many  times  in  your  adult  life  you  have  been 
obliged  to  put  up  your  fists  in  self  defense?  And  as 
to  the  secondary  contention,  recollect  that  any  form 
of  strenuous  exercise  habitually  taken  on  after  the 
plastic  period,  results  practically  in  a  stretching 
of  the  muscles  and  tissues,  and  a  feeding  of  them  so 
stretched.  Thereafter,  the  like  of  the  form  of  exer- 
cise with  the  feeding,  must  be  continued  for  years, 
and  gradually  graded  down  to  some  past  middle  age, 
else  both  muscles  and  tissues  will  go  flabby  under 
wrinkling  flesh,  and  "Doc"  must  do  the  best  he  can 
in  the  case. 

As  an  example  of  how  the  thing  works  out  take 
this:  the  gi'and  majority  of  ex-college  athletes  slough 
ofl^  too  soon  on  the  following-up  process  named. 
Hence,  though  they  represent  the  physical  cream  of 
colleges,  they  do  not  stand  out  in  life  insurance 
statistics  as  by  natural  right  they  would,  had  they 
exercised  and  trained  to  Nature's  bidding,  instead 
of  to  the  snap  of  the  professional's  whip;  nay,  had 
they  not  trained  at  all  for  heart-exhausting  com- 


The  Moral  Criminal  57 

petition,  and  had  just  breezed  along  the  countryside, 
agreeably  with  the  modest  demands  of  the  muscular 
reflexes. 

Lads  are  subject  these  days  to  all  kinds  of  sport- 
ing flim-flam,  not  the  least  pernicious  of  wliich  is 
that  they  must  be  banged  about  the  lot  in  order  to 
win  physical  standing. 

Under  stress  of  wholesouled  play,  pure  sport  will 
pass  betimes  the  line  that  divides  the  gentleman- 
athlete  and  the  instinctively  brutal  battering  ram. 
It  is  good  that  some  have  a  bit  of  grit  ground  into 
them.  Sport  must  ride  lads  to  a  degree,  else  be 
robbed  of  enthusiasm  that  makes  for  wholesome  re- 
sults ;  but  the  moment  the  thuggish  "professional" 
promoter  promotes,  bid  farewell  to  the  finer  sensi- 
bilities and  to  the  purposes  to  which  pure  sport  and 
sporting  should  be  held  for  lads. 

When,  as  at  present,  it  comes  to  the  point  where 
habitual  parasites  of  the  "pug'*  variety  are  held 
up  to  the  3'outh  of  the  land  by  governmental  honor- 
ables,  as  exemplars  of  all  a  lad  should  be  and  strive 
for,  it  is  time  to  call  check ;  and  if  the  grossly  over- 
done sporting  proclivities  of  men  do  not  strike  in, 
perhaps  the  fact  that  the  women  of  the  "honorables" 
also  stand  sponsor  for  first-driving  drones,  will  do  so. 

Looking  at  the  matter  in  the  large,  what  is  it 
if  not  morally  criminal  to  babble  in  one  breath  about 
"disarmament,"  and  in  the  next  breath  imbue  lads 
and  lassies  with  the  ideals  of  the  shouldering  hog, 


68  Criminal  Types 

and  the  instincts  of  the  boss  bull?  Where  else  than 
in  the  moral  gutter  should  a  nation  expect  to  land, 
which  goes  out  of  its  way  to  heroize  thinly  veneered 
parasites,  and  plays  up  to  out  and  out  cheats  of  the 
same  breed? 

The  American  people  have  their  work  cut  out  to 
arrest  that  for  which  they  have  bidden,  put  up,  put 
down,  and  put  through ;  which  is  to  say :  to  snap 
social  handcuffs  on  those  who  advisedly  prey  upon 
the  weak  crotchets  and  vicious  curves  of  their  kind. 
Adding  to  the  germane  tens  of  thousands  of  flouted 
laws  wont  do  it;  nor  will  anything  short  of  a  purg- 
ing of  the  social  conscience.  Moreover,  the  purging 
will  begin  necessarily  at  the  mother's  knee,  and  ex- 
tend through  the  plastic  years. 

America  heads  for  the  shallows  because  she  took 
on  the  impossible  task  of  making  over  habit-marked 
grown-ups,  bidden  to  her  bosom  from  the  scrap  heaps 
of  nations.  Now,  she  may  tack  quickly  or  take  her 
medicine,  prescribed  by  past  masters  at  brute-struck 
quackery. 

So,  without  end,  we  might  specify  and  elaborate. 
The  crucial  point  is  that  the  public  sees  capital 
menace  to  the  public  safety  only  in  the  acts  of  the 
crassest  of  felonious  offenders :  whereas  much  more 
of  fateful  consequence  resides  in  the  morally  unclean 
machinations  of  those  who  practically  shove  human 
pawns  to  the  first  lines  of  criminal  attack. 

Were   all   imprisoned,  petty   thieves   in   the  Ijand 


TJie  Moral  Criminal  59 

turned  loose,  and  jail  sentence  given  their  equivalent 
in  numbers  of  those  at  the  top  who  make  a  business 
of  breaking  moral  law,  the  basic  steps  would  be  taken 
at  once  to  stop  the  criminal  and  solve  the  crime 
problem.  The  foraging  criminal  holds  that  he  at 
least  takes  the  gambler's  chance,  while  swivel-chair 
cheats  "stack"  and  deal  themselves  sure-thing  finan- 
cial aces.  In  so  far  as  that  fact  justifies  the  small- 
fry  felon,  he  is  justified. 

Some  allowance  should  be  made  for  tainted-in- 
blood,  gutter  bred,  falsely-environed  social  misfits, 
who  are  driven  more  or  less  to  selection  of  the  tools 
of  the  savage.  Contrariwise,  there  is  no  defense  of 
the  well-born,  well-brought-up  man  who  descends  in 
his  dealings  with  his  fellowmen  to  the  level  of  the 
card  shark.  Yet  even  the  latter  is  light  in  the  dark 
as  compared  with  the  public  character  who  affects 
sporting  pugs,  pirates,  and  parasites.  Wlien  not 
a  fit  subject  for  the  alienists,  such  an  one  is  overdue 
for  political  death. 

The  common  servant  who  cannot  distinguish  as 
between  beneficent  sport  and  sporting  that  smells 
to  heaven,  ceases  to  be  a  social  asset  not  only; 
he  is  a  menace  to  the  moral  health  of  the 
nation.  Did  he  not  stand  convicted  by  the  major 
millions  of  rational  men  and  women,  one  would 
despair  of  the  dawning  day  of  a  common  brother- 
hood. 

It  were  not  too  rank  to  paraphrase  tliusly :    "The 


60  Criminal  Types 

nation  the  gods  would  destroy,  they  first  make  sport- 
ing mad."  America  is  dangerously  close  to  sporting 
mad.  She  will  come  out  of  that  particular  form 
of  nerve  storm  because  she  will  have  to  do  so.  She 
will  have  to  do  so  for  the  very  good  reason  that  she 
cannot  much  longer  pay  the  two-fold  freight  en- 
tailed; a  two-fold  freight  expressed  man  for  man 
in  constantly  reduced  production,  and  an  increasing 
number  of  disappearing  dollars. 

At  a  given  time,  the  national  wealth  of  America 
reduces  to  the  equivalent  of  the  number  of  dollars 
Americans  have  wisely  earned  and  invested.  Wisely- 
earned  dollars  mean  big  production,  and  big  pro- 
duction means  an  average  big  spending  and  investing 
capacity.  That,  in  turn,  means  brisk  business  along 
the  lines  of  legitimate  commerce  and  trade.  And 
that  means  nearly  universal  employment,  and  freely- 
circulating  money  turned  over  and  over  along  those 
lines. 

Contrary  to  the  claim  of  the  gamester,  there  is 
a  vast  difference  between  the  working  power  of  the 
dollar  that  finds  its  way  into  the  industrial  groove, 
and  the  dollar  that  helps  pack  the  purse  of  a  prosti- 
tute. In  the  one  case,  the  moral  dollar  will  earn 
ever-increasing  increment,  while  contributing  to  the 
general  well-being.  In  the  other  case,  the  immoral 
dollar  had  passed  and  will  pass  mainly  from  the 
pocket  of  one  mulcting  parasite  into  the  pocket  of 
another  mulcting  parasite.     It  had  and  will,  because 


The  Moral  Criminal  61 

human  parasites  produce  nothing  tangible  in  ex- 
change for  that  which  is  dumped  into  their  palms. 
The  money  they  spend  for  their  general  upkeep  is 
largely  turned  back  into  approved  channels  of 
trade;  but  that  is  but  a  fraction  of  the  grand  total. 
The  bulk  of  their  capital  is  and  must  be  nearly  as 
dead  to  the  business  world.  It  is  practically  of 
little  more  use  to  going  business  than  is  hoarded 
money. 

Even  so,  the  enacting  indictment  of  the  sporting 
drone  is  not  a  dollar  indictment.  The  capital  brief 
society  should  hold  against  him  is  that  he  plys 
intrinsically  criminal  tools,  with  which  he  frequently 
"double-crosses"  even  his  fellow  craftsmen. 

"Well,"  says  the  imprisoned  felon  of  the  stripe 
in  question,  "what  did  big  and  little  business  men  do 
to  the  people  during  the  progress  of  the  World  War? 
What  did  they  do  to  each  other  when  diving  foreign 
exchange  upheaved  home  values?  What  did  they 
do  to  every  body  for  long  months  after  prices  should 
have  dropped  pretty  close  to  their  normal  level? 
Did  they  or  did  they  not  play  the  game  as  I  played 
it,  until  consumers  got  after  them  with  buying 
strikes,  and  the  cry  of  stop  thief?  Did  they  or  did 
they  not?" 

Well,  "did  they  or  did  they  not"?  If  they  did, 
what  had  they  on  "the  imprisoned  felon  of  the  stripe 
in  question"?  That's  a  live  wire,  is  that  question; 
a  live  wire  of  the  kind  concerning  which  the  criminal 


62  Criminal  Types 

presses  for  answer,  and  he  is  entitled  to  an  answer 
that  doesn't  squirm  and  doesn't  quibble. 

As  a  dealer  in  the  world's  mart  can  you  return 
an  honest  answer?.  If  you  cannot,  hadn't  you  better 
take  inventory  of  conscience,  and  try  to  understand 
that  the  meanest  kind  of  thievery  is  that  which  raises 
the  ante  on  what  should  be  common  commodities  and 
conveniences,  beyond  the  purchasing  power  of  the 
average  purse,  say  nothing  of  the  plight  of  millions 
of  underdogs  on  whom  the  last  curse  of  criminally- 
manipulated  price  levels  falls? 

If  you  think  yourself  immune  to  such  queries,  make 
study  of  the  ever-tightening  grip  of  the  proletariat 
on  the  use  that  has  been  made  of  them.  Start  with 
the  French  Revolution  and  come  on  down  to  glean 
the  why  of  it  that  workers  mean  to  be  served,  as 
well  as  serving,  in  the  future. 

It  is  true  that  hosts  of  toilers  swallow  hook,  line 
and  sinker  of  the  crooked  gamesters  cast,  and  do 
it  day  in  and  day  out :  fatefuUy,  to  the  end  that  95% 
of  them  are  but  six  months  removed  from  the  poor- 
house  at  the  age  of  65,  in  so  far  as  their  own  financial 
resources  are  concerned.  But  they  now  have  the 
fists  of  their  minds  doubled  to  batter  those  who  would 
build  and  operate,  from  within  a  drawn  circle,  the 
like  of  the  baronial  toll  gate.  Unlock  such  as  inter- 
locking thievery,  say  they,  come  out  into  the  open 
and  do  business  with  us  man  to  make  like  men. 

Next,  let  us  hope,  in  order  of  the  wrath  of  the 


^he  Moral  Criminal  63 

honest  toiler,  will  be  the  meticulously  groomed  and 
brushed  parasite ;  next,  whether  he  plys  deft  fingers 
backed  by  unbeatable  odds,  or  a  glib  tongue  to 
get  a  heap  for  nothing. 

First  of  all  to  feel  the  hand  of  the  worker  should 
be  the  blood-spilling,  pug-parasite ;  him  who  suggests 
war  between  brothers,  dulls  the  finer  sensibilities, 
lowers  both  the  mental  and  moral  tonus  of  mankind, 
and  cheats  even  women  into  believing  that  he  can, 
by  any  possibility,  be  of  any  basic  use  in  the  big 
scheme  of  life. 

Many  good  people  think  differently ;  many  who 
will  not  trouble  to  think  as  it  is  necessary  to  think,  in 
order  to  classify  men  and  motives.  They  are  there- 
fore plastic  clay  for  the  clan  parasite,  inclusive  of 
clever  criminals. 

Crime?  Why,  only  on  criminals  by  legal  edict 
are  the  keys  of  the  turnkey  turned.  Myriads  of 
humans  who  never  face  a  presiding  judge,  plan  and 
execute  moral  crime  that  is  much  more  far-reaching 
than  the  average  even  of  capital  crime. 

Hence,  by-choice  felons  flit  sneeringly  to  and  from 
prison,  where  they  have  to  be  practically  force-fed 
with  moral  precepts ;  that,  very  largely,  because  they 
know  millions  of  free  men  meaner  than  they,  are  im- 
mune to  legal  force-feeding  for  the  meanness. 

So  long  as  such  conditions  obtain  in  America, 
so  long  will  recidivistic  criminals  mount  there  in 
numbers;  and  so  long  will  they  justify  themselves 


64  Criminal  Types 

to  themselves,  and  to  all  who  will  listen  to  their  half- 
baked  contentions. 

"I  see  and  approve  the  good — I  follow  the  bad," 
says  a  far-famed  poet,  whose  bold  declaration  of 
spineless  principle  leaves  him  spokesman  for  thou- 
sands of  moral  weaklings  who  are  always  on  the 
fence,  undecisive  as  to  which  way  to  jump.  It  also 
leaves  him  open  to  the  charge  of  angling  for  a  cheap, 
dirt-distributing  notoriety. 

Another,  ostensibly  an  editor  of  a  New  England 
newspaper — shades  of  the  Pilgrims  stand  by — flares 
at  men  of  the  cloth  who  denounce  such  as  the  late 
bestial  scandal  enacted  at  Jersey  City.  He  is  "con- 
vinced'* that  Catholic  and  Protestant  ministers  are 
"impugning  motives  here  and  blackening  character 
there,  because  they  have  lost  their  tempers  at  the  dis- 
inclination of  the  people  to  follow  them." 

Passing  motives  "impugned"  by  the  Infinite  Mind, 
and  character  "blackened"  with  the  devil's  own 
smudge,  what  would  the  scribe  have  vicars  of  God 
Almighty  do?  What  the  implication  of  his  own 
monstrous  and  most  illogical  libel,  if  not  that  those 
on  wliom  America  does  and  must  rely  for  moral 
guidance,  should  remain  as  mentally  shackled,  and 
morally  blind,  while  blacklegs  and  backsliders  estab- 
lish schools  for  crime,  and  write  the  texts  books  for 
them  .'* 

Hardly !  True  Americans  of  the  "people"  for 
whom  the  gentleman  assumes  to  speak,  wax  fatuous, 


^he  Moral  Criminal  65 

not  to  say  fat-headed  betimes;  but  let  us  hope  that 
they  may  be  relied  upon  finally  to  search  out  and 
set  down  those  who  would  yield  American  birth-right 
for  the  brew  of  the  base  at  heart. 

If  the  sporting-soaked  must  utter  and  shove  coun- 
terfeit moral  coin,  they  owe  it  to  common  decency  not 
to  affect  the  mantle  of  the  mentor;  they  specifically 
do,  because  predal  parasites  bank  on  being  able  to 
point  to  them  as  having  said  and  done  the  last  fool 
thing.  They  further  do,  for  the  reason  that  they  are 
the  readiest  gulls  of  the  grafting  gang  they  cham- 
pion. 

Moral  thieves  are  moral  morons.  Count  them,  and 
get  the  cut  of  the  saw  of  the  "Passaic  News." 


IV 

THE  PSYCHIATRIST 

Webster  defines  psychology  as  "The  science  of 
the  human  soul;  specifically,  the  systematic  and  sci- 
entific knowledge  of  the  powers  and  functions  of  the 
human  soul,  in  so  far  as  they  are  known  to  conscious- 
ness ;  a  treatise  on  the  human  soul.'* 

Modified  by  the  phrase,  "in  so  far  as  they  are 
known  to  consciousness,"  that  definition  will  do, 
albeit  we  have  arrived  at  but  little  "knowledge"  of 
the  "powers  and  functions  of  the  human  soul"  and 
at  less  of  prescience  that  accounts  for  the  by-choice 
criminal.  Then,  too,  distinction  must  be  made  as 
between  the  finite  limitations  of  the  brain  of  flesh, 
and  the  infinite  reach  of  the  "soul"  of  man. 

In  any  case,  let  us  not  cough  over  a  too  nice 
fitting  of  technical  terms ;  but  envisage,  in  the  broad, 
the  matter  of  mental  research  and  healing. 

The  more  material  powers  of  the  mind  of  the 
criminal  frequently  elude  the  examiner  and  tools 
which  can  be  too  "systematic."  This,  because  the 
examiner  faces  cards  which  the  examined  instinc- 
tively  employ    every    means    at   their    command   to 

66 


The  Psychiatrist  67 

euchre.  Also,  if  his  limited  scope  of  criminological 
vision  causes  him  to  over-emphasize  present  em- 
phasis, and  to  bolt  the  way-backward  trail  of  his 
subject,  the  examiner  will  remain  as  half  blind  to 
the  basic  reasons  for  a  given  criminal. 

Cardinal  causes  for  the  criminal  commonly  hark 
back  to  remote  ancestors.  And  so,  for  example,  one 
unacquainted  with  the  early  history  of  the  Sicilian 
people,  the  events  of  which  changed  so  many  of  that 
people  from  trustful,  mutually  helpful  sons  of  the 
soil,  into  dagger-thrusting  brigands,  lunging  for  the 
hearts  of  their  blood  brothers,  has  no  call  to  classify 
the  alien  Sicilian-Italian  who  makes  America  his  base 
of  operations.  That  is  essentially  so,  because  the 
period  from  bib  to  puberty  is  the  most  impression- 
able after-birth  period,  during  which  a  lad  will  tend 
to  take  on  much  that  will  aggravate  congenital 
predisposition ;  predisposition  the  more  fateful 
for  the  reason  that  it  lurks  in  the  unconscious, 
and  there  constantly  presses  upon  its  victim  for 
expression. 

Hence,  psycho-physical  research  that  does  not 
cover  the  whole  field  of  motive  and  motion,  is  com- 
paratively valueless.  By  the  same  token,  the  investi- 
gator who  is  casehardened  with  technical  lore,  will 
be  very  likely  to  miscall  the  turn,  especially  on  the 
alien  and  near-alien  criminal. 

Above  all  else,  the  psychiatrist  must  measure  the 
criminal  with  an  absolutely  open  mind,  attuned  alike 


68  Crimmal  Types 

to  individual  and  racial  determination ;  attuned,  also, 
to  his  own  definitions,  such  as  that  psychic  contagion 
is  "transfer  of  nervous  disease  by  imitation";  and 
attuned  to  the  fact  that  the  mode  of  operating  em- 
ployed with  Awasco,  the  sunny-hearted,  compara- 
tively ingenuous  "Wop,"  anxious  to  help,  won't  do 
at  all  with  Hungarian  Zynthncr  the  sullen,  who  is 
evasive,  suspicious,  and  resentful  alike  of  authority 
and  the  personal  touch,  because  he  still  bristles  over 
hurts  visited  upon  him  and  his  by  thick-lipped  Haps- 
burgs. 

Mental  searching  of  the  latter  class  of  criminals 
usually  yields  next  to  nothing  that  is  specifically  of 
capital  importance.  For  want  of  the  master-key 
to  the  situation,  the  operator  leaves  the  tested  laugh- 
ing up  their  sleeves  over  having  fundamentally  over- 
reached the  tester.  Needless  to  add,  the  master-key 
is  mostly  shaped  of  the  metal  of  foreign  soil,  and 
unlocks  the  far-removed  circumstance. 

First  off,  the  really  expert  examiner  will  seek  to 
win  the  undivided  attention,  full  confidence,  and 
voluntary  cooperation  of  his  man,  who  is  to  be  led 
only  by  judicious  degrees  to  the  conviction  that  the 
questioner  is  not  a  mere  cog  of  a  "scientific"  machine, 
the  purpose  of  which  is  to  bare  the  subject^s  soul, 
regardless  of  his  feelings  in  the  matter. 

Call  mental  research  by  what  name  you  will:  state 
it  in  esoteric  terms  laden  with  syllables,  or  so  plainly 
that  a  recent  past  master  at  making  mud  pies  can 


The  PsycJiiatrist  69 

understand,  and  it  must  still  be  led,  as  well  as  lead- 
ing, else  miss  the  mark. 

Stamps  of  stigma  are  essentially  subversive  of 
the  end  sought.  Designate  a  lad  by  a  disgraceful 
name,  and  you  create  the  strongest  of  initial  motive 
for  him  to  earn  the  name.  Moreover,  such  pro- 
cedure is  usually  as  senseless  as  harmful,  since  it  is 
not  within  human  gift  to  declare  the  morrow  of  the 
disease-free,  pre-adolescent  mind.  The  writer  is 
moved  to  stress  this  paragraph,  because  he  has  ob- 
served so  many  cases  whereof  full-blown  puberty 
has  marked  mental  metamorphosis ;  marked  it  both 
as  to  the  positive  and  negative,  the  which  will  usually 
depend  on  the  sum  of  the  subject's  bringing-up,  in- 
clusive, of  course,  of  the  sum  of  his  environment ;  and 
partly  on  his  intrinsic  moral  fibre,  born  at  his  birth. 
And  recollect  that  juvenile  predilections  usually 
mark  the  confirmed  criminal  to  be. 

In  any  case,  the  negative  conclusion  should  wait 
upon  indubitable  evidence;  and  the  positive,  general 
statement  be  mostly  guardedly  made,  since  the  scales 
will  likely  tip  to  the  weight  of  influence,  and  that 
may  be  in  the  lap  of  change  entirely  beyond  the 
ken  of  "little  man,"  God,  alone,  disposes,  alike 
as  to  mind  and  matter.  Furthermore,  pre-criminal 
motivations  are  never  singular;  hence  the  single- 
seeing  reformer,  or  investigator,  cuts  no  swath  in 
complex,  crowding  crime.  And  furthermore,  his 
conclusions  may  be  absolutely  correct,  and  his  mode 


70  Criminal  Types 

of  applying  remedial  measures  be  diametrically  at 
variance  with  tlie  crying  exactions  of  his  subject. 

Then  again,  crime  is  not  a  disease  in  the  sense 
that  it  is  so  lightly  pi*oclaimed.  Crime  may  eventu- 
ate mainly  because  of  congenital  flaw,  physical, 
mental,  or  both ;  or  it  may  crop  out  by  acquirement 
in  spite  of  a  sound  heredity ;  but  it  always  issues  to 
relative  mental  disease  in  the  sense  that  habitually 
oblique  reasoning  becomes  master  of  the  subject, 
either  tentatively,  or  for  good  and  all ;  tentatively, 
if  the  constant  weight  of  influence  is  preponderantly 
in  his  favor,  and  permanently  under  the  reverse 
circumstance. 

More  than  that,  the  serviceable  investigator  will 
understand  how  the  weight  of  influence  can  be  turned, 
one  way  or  the  other,  by  seeming  straws  of  eff'ort 
or  circumstance.  For  instance,  the  mood  of  the 
moment  must  be  understood  not  only,  but  as  well, 
why  it  is  the  mood  of  the  moment.  Here,  pre-natal 
influence  may  carry  in  nothing  more  tangible  than 
a  lowering  sky.  There,  the  marked  face  of  the  man 
betrays  the  erotic-neurotic  in  the  throes  of  the  im- 
mediate aftermath  of  his  self-indulged  spree,  in  which 
state  of  low  vitality  he  naturally  looks  out  upon  an 
ugly,  drab  world.  Another  nurses  a  fetich :  a  ridicu- 
lous fetich,  to  be  sure,  but  one  of  which  you  shall 
not  purge  his  mind  with  a  club  of  words ;  indeed,  in 
no  way  else  than  through  patiently  building  to  his 
better  understanding.    Per  contra,  looms  up  the  cap- 


The  Psychiatrist  71 

sheaf  of  them  all:  the  parent-spoiled  ego-centric 
mouther,  who  is  certain  sure  he  could  plan  a  better 
world  than  ever  Almighty  God  could  think  of.  Very 
good,  encourage  him  to  build  it ;  then  pick  it  to 
pieces,  preferably  with  terse,  pregnant  parables  that 
leave  him  not  a  stone  to  stand  on.  Do  it  often,  do 
it  advisedly,  and  do  it  thoroughly.  You  will  not 
thereby  win  him  at  once  to  rational  thought,  but  you 
have  better  than  a  fighting  chance  to  switch  him  for 
it,  if  you  are  kindly  tactful,  and  do  not  attempt  to 
stuff  your  opposed  views  down  his  throat. 

We  are  not  concerned  here  with  those  doomed 
mentally  in  state  of  embryo,  save  that  it  is  well  to 
have  in  mind  Dr.  A.  Jacobi's  "Report  to  the  Prison 
Congress  of  1892,"  to  the  effect  that  "No  congenital 
chronic  thickening  of  the  brain  membranes,  no 
fixed  changes  in  the  brain  substance,  unless  it  be 
syphilitic  perhaps,  have  ever  been  cured."  So  much 
is  indisputable  fact,  qualified  by  the  word  "cured." 

With  Dr.  Jacobi's  further  assertion,  many  will, 
without  presumption,  disagree:  "It  is  not  necessary 
to  resort  to  material  impressions  (in  the  embryonic 
state)  as  the  cause  of  physical,  intellectual  and  moral 
anomalies  in  the  offspring:  that  theory  may  safely 
be  left  to  nurses  and  poets." 

Passing  the  poet — who  usually  culls  and  adorns, 
yet  has  been  known  to  probe  and  create — while  ob- 
jecting strongly  for  the  grateful  nurse  who  often 
guides  to  health  where  the  physician,  single-handed, 


72  Crvminal  Types 

would  have  failed,  is  Dr.  Jacobi's  second  sweeping 
conclusion  unassailable? 

What  is  the  last  power  of  the  protoplasmic  germ, 
and  what  is  the  last  influence  from  which  it  derives 
that  power?  Can  any  man  answer  unqualifiedly, 
and  if  he  cannot,  just  why  exclude  the  psychic  from 
the  possibilities?  If  morbidly  by  "psychic  con- 
tagion" is  admitted,  why  refuse  pre-natal  impres- 
sions of  psychic  origin? 

We  know  that  hereditary  transmission  is  persis- 
tent as  to  physical  attributes.  It  may  appear  to 
drop  stitches  here  and  there,  though  we  shall  note 
more  or  less  of  reversion  to  type  if  we  follow  through 
far  enough;  but  let  opinion  be  as  it  may,  how  is  one 
to  check  up  variations  of  mood,  temperament  and 
disposition  with  physical  figures?  As  to  the  last 
three,  Jimmy  the  first  and  Johnny  the  second  of 
the  same  family  are  antithetic.  Why,  if  the  physical 
is  final? 

How,  by  purely  physical  analysis,  are  we  to  ac- 
count for  the  fact  that  the  original  Clay  family 
of  horses  were  notoriously  high-strung  and  hard 
to  school  to  rein :  whereas  the  Morgan  family  were 
supremely  easy  to  break  and  groove?  Why,  where 
the  blood  line  was  kept  pure,  did  the  family  tempera- 
ment persist,  with  few  deviations,  and  even  then  breed 
on  again  back  to  original  family  "manners"?  Why, 
with  mixture  of  those  breeds,  mixture  of  manners? 

What  made  the  intrinsic  difference  in  mental  bent 


The  FsycUatrist  73 

and  physical  outlook  as  between  Webster  and 
Hayne?  Why  was  the  one  a  stickler  for  centralized 
governmental  power,  and  the  other  champion  of  the 
rights  of  individual  States,  and  why  was  each  cock- 
sure of  his  ground  of  contention  under  the  Consti- 
tution? In  the  final  analysis,  did  anything  out  of 
physiology  decide  the  question,  and  how  did,  what 
did  decide,  take  up  its  abode  in  the  national  con- 
sciousness? 

Do  hopples  employed  in  effecting  change  in  the 
original,  instinctive  gait  of  a  mare  from  trot  to 
pace,  alone  account  for  change  of  gait?  If  so,  why, 
when  her  instinct  of  motion  is  changed  mechanically 
from  the  trot  to  the  pace,  does  she  transmit  the 
latter-acquired  instinct  to  her  progeny,  to  the  near 
exclusion  of  the  gait  she  was  born  to?  Why,  when 
the  hopples  are  removed,  does  she  not  revert  to  the 
trot? 

Waj^  back  of  Civil  War  days,  a  gentleman-horse- 
man of  Rhode  Island  changed  the  gait  of  the  saddle 
horse  of  the  lady  of  his  choice  to  the  pace,  agreeably 
with  the  fastidious  taste  of  the  lady.  Then,  it  was, 
the  "pacer"  made  his  bow  to  the  horse  world.  To- 
day, he  speeds  better  than  fifty-fifty  with  trotters 
through  the  "Grand  Circuit,"  and  almost  surely 
transmits  the  instinct  to  pace.  Hopples  now  are 
employed  mainly  to  prevent  "breaking";  in  fact, 
pacing  champions  have  been  leg-free  of  them. 

What's   the  answer,  if  not  transmitted  instinct, 


74  Criminal  Types 

and  who  is  to  draw  the  boundary  line  thereof?  If 
the  instinct  to  play  a  base  horn,  why  not  the  instinct 
to  play  a  base  part?  If  the  instinct  to  play  a  base 
part,  why  not  the  instinct  to  brood  and  abnonnally 
berate  oneself,  or  flippantly  break  laws,  or  froth 
over  fol-de-rol,  or  "fake"  the  whole  human  scheme? 

At  any  rate,  the  instinctive  intent  of  the  habitual 
criminal  is  summed  up  in  the  last  phrase  of  the  pre- 
ceding paragraph.  There^fore,  we  needs  must 
sharpen  our  tools  of  amendment  and  repair  accord- 
ingly. 

Sharpening,  we  shall  learn  on  the  one  hand  that 
bloviation  brands  the  surface-sign,  self-seeking  ex- 
aminer ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  that  be  his  lip-service 
never  so  fulsome  in  favor  of  this  or  that  man,  method, 
or  regime  of  reform,  the  examined  is  dealing  from 
the  bottom  of  the  deck  if  he  does  not  hearken  unto 
"The  stern  daughter  of  the  voice  of  God." 

The  subject  is  hearkening  if  he  has  the  grit  to 
pass  up  "gutter  gufF"  always  circulating  in  the 
criminal  crowd,  while  he  puts  forth  earnest  efforts 
for  fundamental  averages.  Contrariwise,  if  he 
juggles  those  averages  with  his  mind  clamped  to  the 
sporting  schedule  of  the  place,  he  is  "faking" ;  he 
is  faking,  even  though  he  cunningly  steers  clear  of 
the  house  disciplinarian.  Hence,  the  rational  regime 
of  reform  will  require  him  to  do  the  one,  while  mak- 
ing it  practically  impossible  for  him  to  do  the  other, 
and  make  an  early  parole — as  he  now  does. 


The  Psychiatrist  75 

Save  for  congenital  deviates  the  like  of  those 
named  by  Dr.  Jacobi,  determination  of  his  reactions 
is  but  the  first  step  in  the  social  rehabilitation  of  the 
recidivistic  felon;  in  truth,  the  determination  so  far 
is  in  appreciable  measure  self-evident.  By  the  very 
fact  that  he  elects  to  be  and  remain  a  lawbreaker, 
he  is  somewhat  of  a  mental  dud,  and  more  of  a  moral 
pervert.  Moreover,  whether  he  was  slated  mainly  by 
nature  to  play  the  part,  or  it  was  pressed  upon  him 
by  the  cumulative  weight  of  spiteful  circumstance, 
he  plays  the  part. 

The  part  is  the  part  of  the  predal  parasite,  the 
which  he  likes  fully  well  and  will  not  cast  aside 
lightly  at  call  to  carry  his  rightly  weighted  share  of 
the  social  load,  be  that  never  so  light. 

Opinions  differ  as  to  the  capacity  of  the  criminal 
to  adjust  to  social  exactions,  but  there  can  be  no 
two  judgments  as  to  the  duty  of  the  State  to  require 
of  him  that  he  shall  make  earnest  bid  for  the  best 
social  expression  of  which  he  is  capable.  Thereof 
his  number  in  the  average  is  not  so  close  to  zero 
as  it  is  commonly  marked.  Added  to  his  positive 
mental  response,  a  cei-tain  cleavage  in  favor  of  his 
brain  and  betterment  must  nearly  always  be  allowed, 
since  he  usually  plays  possum  in  prison  for  "easy 
pickin'  "  in  line  with  his  anti-social  predilections. 

Furthermore,  mental  search  made  in  a  strange  and 
stressed  atmosphere,  with  tools  utterly  foreign  to 
the  subject's  attention,  will  get  on  his  nerves  to  a 


76  Criminal  Types 

degree,  and  may  prove  baldly  misleading;  misleading 
not  only  as  to  his  latent  mental  content,  but  as  well 
upon  him,  if  negative  procedure  following  the  search 
causes  him  to  throw  up  his  hands  in  deep-seated 
disgust. 

Under  restrictive  conditions,  for  which  a  bungling 
operator  may  be  primarily  responsible,  a  hyperes- 
thetic  might  suffer  close  to  acute  sensory  aphasia ; 
and  he  who  bears  the  burdens  of  hebetude  would 
probably  fare  no  better  if  the  clicking  of  his  mind 
were  clocked  to  an  arbitrary  time  allowance. 

In  any  case,  the  final  test  should  revert  to  ma- 
terial practices,  and  processes  of  intellection  whereof 
the  subject  had  worked  from  motive  to  excel,  shall 
the  motive  have  been  good,  bad,  or  indifferent. 

Particularly,  the  examiner  should  beware  a  habit 
of  mind  that  sends  him  fetich  stalking:  as  for  in- 
stance, to  establish  the  ultimate,  unconscious,  sexual 
base  of  neurasthenia;  or  a  given  percentage  of 
morons,  applicable  in  general  to  felonious  offenders 
against  the  public  law,  or  even  as  constant  for  differ- 
ent prison  populations.  The  danger  that  lies  in 
determination  to  prove  what  one  is  predisposed  to 
prove,  is  not  easily  overestimated;  indeed,  the  test 
should,  in  such  case,  pass  from  tested  to  tester. 

When  a  man  gets  that  way  as  to  any  human  ques- 
tion, he  is  relatively  in  the  same  state  of  mind  as 
the  fetichist  who  fondles  milady's  shoe,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  body  and  soul  of  her,  provided:  the 


TJve  Psychiatrist  77 

shoe  is  high-heeled  and  buttons.  Such  an  one  should 
turn  awhile  from  the  criminal  crowd,  to  care-free 
thinking  in  the  wide  open.  Before  resuming  his 
duties,  he  should  further  check  up  with  one  of  his 
craft  who  planes  his  blocks  to  square  with  well-bat- 
tened conclusions. 

While  it  is  true  that  no  structural  change  to  man's 
hand  is  possible  in  the  brain  built  in  embryo,  it  is 
also  true  that  the  pernicious  custom  is  to  overde- 
termination  of  the  damage  done  in  that  state.  For 
example,  the  fact  that  a  given  subject  may  never 
hope  to  master  calculus,  doesn't  mean  that  he  may 
not  be  stretched  to  the  size  of  a  serviceable  bread- 
winner. In  line  with  that  truth,  take  one,  of  many, 
extreme  cases  that  have  come  under  the  writer's  ob- 
servation and  treatment: 

R.,  age  sixteen,  lowest-grade  imbecile  and  border- 
line idiot,  so  dense  that  it  took  the  writer  three  weeks 
to  establish  in  his  mind  the  difference  between  right 
and  left.  When  so  much  of  mental  awakening  came, 
came  with  it  a  pitifully  wistful  smile  of  blowing  pride. 
Another  three  weeks,  and  he  could  execute  on  com- 
mand with  few  slips  through  the  "School  of  the 
Soldier.'*  At  the  end  of  three  months,  he  worked 
regularly  and  reliably  with  his  company  in  battalion 
drill  through  intricate  "Successive  Formations"; 
and  within  the  year,  he  could  take  his  company  to 
and  from  any  formation  with  which  he  had  been 
taught  to  form.    More  than  that,  he  picked  up  nicely 


78  Criminal  Types 

at  common  school,  and  made  relatively  good  progress 
at  "Sloyd." 

Surely,  all  of  that  does  not  come  under  the  head- 
ing of  "reflex  action";  and  if  it  does,  what  of  it? 
If  a  megacephalic,  splay-footed,  slab-sided,  lumber- 
ing imbecile  like  R.,  so  close  to  the  idiot  as  to  give 
off  the  lattcr's  proverbial  scent,  can  be  carried  even 
to  the  stage  of  mental  and  physical  development  R. 
was  carried  "within  the  year,"  what  cannot  be  done 
for  the  mounting  millions  of  mentally  and  physically 
backward  girls  and  boys  of  America  classed  as  "Mor- 
ons"? How  are  we  to  get  the  down-to-the-ground 
work  of  the  land  done  without  the  aid  of  such? 

In  any  event,  it  is  at  once  informing  and  encour- 
aging to  note  that  the  school  authorities  of  New 
York  City  have  called  check  on  the  near  mania  of 
the  period  to  attach  negatively  overdrawn  advalorem 
tags  to  such  children ;  and  then,  when  so  tagged, 
practically  to  dump  them  into  the  social  discard, 
there  to  hate  themselves,  each  other,  and  everybody. 

For  one,  cardinal  thing,  the  named  school  authori- 
ties rightly  hold  that  the  humane  burden  is  upon 
New  York  City's  teaching  staff  to  dig  out  and  de- 
cide upon  ways  and  means  better  than  those  which 
make  social  pariahs  of  unfolding  lads  and  lassies. 

The  same  authorities  further  hold  rightly  that 
the  benefits  accruing  to  such  children  through  mix- 
ing with  the  better-equipped  mass  is,  in  itself,  a 
consideration  not  to  be  lightly  brushed  aside.     And 


The  Psychiatrist  79 

once  more,  that  mental  backwardness  is  in  appreci- 
able measure  chargeable  to  false  methods  of  educative 
approach  and  attack. 

Gentlemen  who  lie  awake  o'nights  devising  bizarre 
means  by  which  alleged  criminal  "morons"  can  best 
be  cheated  of  that  which  the  school  authorities  of  the 
City  of  New  York  insist  New  York's  mentally  back- 
ward children  shall  have,  will  do  well  to  follow  the 
effects  of  the  edict  of  those  authorities.  Certainly 
that  edict  won't  visit  arresting  embargo  upon  the 
normal  mass  of  children,  and  must  prove  a  boon  to 
approximately  ten  thousand  children  who  don't  just 
measure  to  arbitrarily-spaced  mental  tape;  tape 
which  is  not,  and  can  not  be,  out  of  the  hand  of  the 
Almighty,  and  tape  which  can  not  measure  to  fully 
unfolded  years. 

As  applies  to  either  prison  or  public  school  in- 
struction, the  crucial  points  are:  (1)  Technical 
marks  of  stigmata  are  much  too  frequently  and  much 
too  loosely  attached  to  budding  youth,  the  inevitable 
effect  of  which  is  to  depress  and  discourage  them, 
particularly  out  of  the  gibes  of  unthinking  comrades. 
(2)  More  often  than  not,  the  marks  initiate  in  the 
fallible  brains  of  those  tricked  into  overdetermina- 
tion,  through  predisposition  amounting  to  near  ob- 
session to  make  the  technical  case.  (3)  The  marks, 
as  arrived  at  under  present  conception  of  rational 
"follow-up"  processes,  do  not  carry  to  comprehen- 
sive measures.     (4)  The  scholastic  or  reform  curri- 


80  Criminal  Types 

culum  that  is  not  pregnant  with  influences  funda- 
mentally germane  to  the  mental,  moral  and  physical 
uplift  of  the  last  unit  of  the  mass,  is  either  falsely 
prescribed  or  prosecuted. 

Because  of  his  reasoning  faculty,  the  child,  more 
quickly  than  any  other  youngling  of  the  animal  king- 
dom, unfolds  by  imitation  to  good  suggestion  and 
good  example.  Hence,  if  solely  because  segregated- 
group  treatment  practically  cold-blankets  those  two, 
capital  influences,  as  exerted  by  the  mass  upon  the 
individual,  it  should  be  relegated  to  the  domain  where 
veiled  minds  are  wedded  either  to  fantasies,  or  to 
the  useless  function. 

Wheresoever  mental  dullards  are  schooled,  the 
atmosphere  should  be  surcharged  with  hope.  There, 
the  word  "can't"  should  be  held  taboo,  and  "you  can 
if  you  will"  issue  commonly  with  the  force  of  an 
unquestionable  slogan.  No  matter  how  apparently 
hopeless  the  case,  no  suggestion  of  character  what- 
soever, to  that  eff'ect,  should  be  carried  to  the  sub- 
ject. 

Related  tests  for  physical  reactions  may  be  taken 
at  very  close  to  their  face  value,  since  the  responses 
thereto  are  mostly  involuntary,  and,  in  any  instance, 
the  subject  can't  just  figure  it  out  hoW  to  beat  them. 
However,  acquired  ability,  plus  somewhat  of  natural 
gift  of  the  psycho-analyst  to  trace  signs  to  their 
source  and  intertwining,  must  be  beyond  question. 

The  phrase  "plus  somewhat  of  natural  gift"  is 


The  Psychiatrist  81 

inserted,  because  the  burden  is  at  once  upon  the 
examiner  to  pick  apart  the  mosaic  of  motive,  and  to 
uncover  the  counter  motives  of  the  examined.  That 
he  will  not  do  reliably  short  of  an  intuitive  faculty 
naturally  keen,  backed  by  a  heap  of  horse  sense,  and 
a  broad  culture;  a  culture  so  broad  that  he  can 
vibrate  alike  with  such  as  the  cheap  paddock  tout, 
the  crass,  ego-centric,  oversexed  hyperesthenic  with 
a  chip  on  his  shoulder,  the  plain  plumb  bum  and 
crowded-out  derelict,  the  congenital  victim  of  hebe- 
tude with  ox-like  mind  and  the  sensibilities  of  the 
mullet,  and  the  bald  criminal  cheat,  out  all  of  the 
time  to  bring  the  crime-tainted-bacon  home  over  the 
subterranean  route. 

Actually  to  grade  human  souls  and  sound  human 
hearts,  is  a  heaping  order  that  calls  for  catholic 
understanding  of  comparative  sociology,  retroac- 
tive as  to  transmitted  traits  of  character  for  at  least 
one-hundred-and-eighty  years.  Back  of  that,  man 
has  not  yet  probed  to  impulse  for  human  action  of 
the  present;  but  he  can  not  be  sure  that  reasons 
in  part  for  present  given  courses  of  human  conduct, 
may  not  strike  backward  centuries  farther  than 
nine-score  years. 

Not  so  long  ago,  as  world  time  goes,  natural  selec- 
tion was  the  vogue.  Under  Lycurgus,  a  little  later 
on.  Spartan  youth  who  were  not  expert  foragers 
from  the  common  hoard,  were  subject  to  the  heaviest 
hand  of  the  State.     Another  short  bridge  of  years, 


82  Criminal  Types 

and  Germans  who  grilled  the  legions  of  Vainis  boasted 
that  they  "didn't  go  to  war  but  to  annihilation." 
Shortly  thereafter  the  doom  of  the  Roman  Empire 
was  adumbrated  partly  by  the  "lounge-lizard"  given 
over  to  various  forms  of  indefensible  conquest,  not 
the  least  of  which  led  to  vitiating  sexual  excess ;  and 
partly  by  establishing  barbarous  letting  of  human 
blood  in  the  national  consciousness  as  a  form  of 
amusement. 

From  then  on,  most  of  social  upheavals  carried 
the  germs  of  future  social  chaos  in  thousands  of 
killings,  the  bulk  of  which  were  bom  of  hectic,  heart- 
less bestiality,  and  very  few,  if  any,  of  which  wrought 
for  whole-seeing  man. 

Through  all,  war  over  religious  creeds  is  charge- 
able, more  than  any  other  one  influence,  with  retarda- 
tion of  human  progress.  Therefore,  to  trace  the 
backward  trail  of  the  purblind  bigot,  is  ofttimes  the 
primary  chore  of  the  psycho-analyst. 

Instinctive,  habitual  thievery  lashed  into  lads,  even 
unto  death,  323  B.  C.  would  necessarily  carry  with 
tremendous  pertinacity ;  probably  not  unto  this  year 
of  our  Lord,  but  possibly  so.  It  is  given  to  no  man 
to  declare  unequivocally  that  an  intrinsic  Greek 
thief  of  to-day  is  not,  as  to  natural  tendency  to 
thieve,  more  or  less  the  product  of  certain  lads  whom 
the  authorities  of  ancient  Sparta  sped  on  their  thiev- 
ing ways. 

We  know  comparatively  so  little  about  hereditary 


The  PsycMatrist  83 

transmission,  that  to  allege  of  the  fixed  "law,"  or 
laws  thereof,  is  to  part  company  with  the  possibili- 
ties. 

Degree  by  degree,  the  finite  mind  of  man  edges 
closer  to  that  which  but  ten  decades  ago  was  by 
common  consent  relegated  to  the  domain  of 
the  infinite ;  as  for  examples,  telegraphy,  tele- 
phony, and  the  wireless.  The  wireless,  mark 
you,  the  metallic  language  of  which  depends  pri- 
marily upon  synchronous  vibrations  produced  by 
sound  waves. 

That's  striking  so  close  to  telepathy  as  to  make 
rational  conception  of  pre-natal  influence  relatively 
simple  reasoning.  Also,  it  causes  one  to  wonder 
if  it  be  not  a  part  of  the  Great  Scheme  of  the  all- 
knowing  Father  to  unfold  the  finite  mind  of  man 
measurably  to  conception  of  the  infinite? 

Be  all  as  it  may,  present  social  conditions  in 
America  offer  many  visible  signs  of  far-removed 
atavistic  pressure  upon  polyglot  Americans  in  the 
making;  signs  directly  applicable  to  thousands  of 
alien  predal  felons  in  our  midst,  whom,  with  such 
signs,  the  psyclio-analyst  must  read.  Of  those 
signs  are  the  singular  predilection  of  the  Sicilian- 
Italian  criminal  for  criminousness  by  group  expres- 
sion, initiating  with  the  "Mafiauso,"  headquarters 
at  Palermo,  Sicily ;  and  the  instinctive  predisposition 
of  his  blood  brothers  of  the  "Camorra,"  across  the 
Strait  of  Messena,  headquarters  at  Naples,  to  com- 


84  Crimmal  Types 

bine  against  the  established  social  order  and  tear 
things. 

Hence,  largely  it  is,  that  human  life  in  America 
is  at  the  moment  held  at  a  price  less  than  the  primi- 
tive savage  placed  upon  it.  Spurious  leaders  of 
athletics  of  old  Rome  got  behind  that  bad  business 
with  the  bone-breaking  gladiator;  and  spurious 
leaders  of  athletics  are  to-day  pressing  in  America 
for  reversion  to  the  murderous  sporting  type  of 
Nero*s  time,  through  establishing  the  blood-spilling 
pug-ugly,  and  heroizing  the  low-down  parasital 
"sport." 

Get  that,  to  its  ramifications,  such  as  that  on  the 
one  hand  the  average  annual  salary  of  ministers  of 
the  Methodist  faith  has  just  been  raised  approxi- 
mately from  800  to  1100  dollars;  and  on  the  other 
hand,  that  a  won't-work,  fistic  brute  demands  and 
commands  $300,000,  "win  or  lose,"  for  a  few  minutes 
at  cutting,  slugging  and  punching  recognition  out  of 
the  countenance  of  another  parasital  "pug."  This, 
while  public  school  teachers  have  to  press,  and  press 
for  a  living  wage,  given  grudgingly. 

Get  just  that  much  of  anti-social  play  and  pres- 
sure, then  wonder  not  that  the  sporting-grooved 
predal  felon  spurns  actual  work,  and  that  college 
authorities  have  to  put  hopples  on  thousands  of 
sport-soaked,  bucking  young  bronchos,  in  order  to 
align  them  for  a  smattering  of  cheap  culture. 

As  if  all   that  were  not   enough,  would-be  bell- 


Tlie  Psychiatnst  85 

wethers  of  reform  can  not  rest  until  they  have  well- 
nigh  ruined  regimes  of  reform  through  supercharg- 
ing them  with  so-called  "sporting  features." 

Right  here  is  the  chance  for  the  wholly  honest, 
wholly  earnest  psycho-analyst  to  score.  Better  than 
he,  none  should  know  that  legitimate  sport  outraged 
is  commonly  one  of  the  cardinal  causes  for  the  con- 
firmed criminal;  and  that  to  further  inoculate  with 
the  sporting  "bug"  a  lad  already  ridden  by  the 
vicious  by-products  of  sport,  is  directly  to  furnish 
him  with  formula  for  further  perversion  of  a  funda- 
mentally good  instinct.  He  also  knows  that  per- 
version of  the  sporting  instinct  frequently  ends  with 
the  Wassermann  test,  and  the  polluted  victim  who 
is  a  menace  to  the  public  health. 

Prisoner  or  freeman,  rational  exercise  in  the  free 
air  he  should  have ;  but  why,  after  nearly  two- 
thousand  years  of  kneeling  at  Christian  altars, 
should  man  hold  up  such  as  the  "two-fisted,"  cruel, 
degenerate,  human  battering  ram,  as  a  criterion  for 
his  upcoming  kiddies  to  ape?  And  if  he  will  have 
it  so,  why  babble  about  "disarmament"  and  "waves" 
of  crime? 

Naught  but  logical  sequence  of  action  piled  on 
logical  sequence  of  action  explains  the  predal  felon 
who  now  comes  a'shooting  at  high  noon  in  America. 
About  that,  the  much-touted  aftermath  of  the  World 
War  has  had  little  to  do,  and  imbuing  lads  with  the 
instincts  of  the  bull,  a  very  great  deal. 


86  Criminal  Types 

Stripped  of  cheap  verbiage  and  cheaper  buncombe, 
the  brutal  fact  is  that  America  has  bid,  put  up,  put 
down,  and  put  through,  both  in  and  out  of  prison, 
as  if  she  were  motivated  to  establish  the  predal 
felon.  That  she  has  done  primarily  through  fram- 
ing the  loosest  and  most  asinine  of  immigration  laws, 
easily  beatable;  and  secondarily,  and  again  in  and 
out  of  prison,  through  extracting  near  to  the  last 
sting  of  consequence  from  the  commission  of  crime. 

If  caught  and  corralled — against  which  the 
chances  are  about  ten  to  one — the  broad-day  mur- 
derous footpad  goes  to  prison  with  a  contemptuous 
sneer  in  his  heart  for  repression  that  doesn't  repress. 
Also,  he  nurses  a  smug  chuckle  over  the  fact  that 
criminal  law,  the  fundamental  office  of  which  is  to 
prevent  crime,  doesn't  prevent. 

To  the  "sneer,"  he  has  been  actively  helped  by 
dream-drugged  dilettantes  of  lay  extraction,  who 
base  their  reformative  foibles  on  the  utterly  falla- 
cious idea  that  reformative  regimes  should  be  ordered 
to  square  with  the  natural  reactions  of  habitual 
criminal  rounders. 

For  the  "smug  chuckle,"  he  is  appreciably  in- 
debted to  legal  agents  of  the  criminal  division  of 
the  law  who,  either  through  false  sentence,  false  sus- 
pension of  sentence,  or  false  probatory  extensions, 
have  rendered  spineless  the  least  elastic  predicates 
of  penal  codes. 

In  free  life  the  gambler's  chance  jumps  by  the 


The  Psychiatrist  87 

square  in  favor  of  the  criminal  in  accordance  with 
the  gravity  of  his  crime. 

The  promise  of  the  early  nineties  for  prison  man- 
agement earnestly  and  honestly  dedicated  to  actual 
reformative  processes,  with  inclusive  trades  teach- 
ing featured,  is  become  a  huge  joke  to  those  in  the 
know:  a  culmination  due  very  largely  to  grossly 
overdrawn  compromise  with  the  average  criminal's 
instinctive  desire  for  the  low-down  sporting  limelight. 

Therefore  the  psychology  of  the  average  intrinsic 
criminal,  in  so  far  as  his  reactions  to  intrinsic  re- 
formative processes  are  concerned,  has  been  made 
to  his  mind.  And  therefore  the  psychoanalyst  can 
do  his  best  work  not  by  demonstrating  arrest  of  the 
social  sense,  and  associate  reactions  of  the  criminal, 
since  so  much  the  very  fact  of  his  being  a  criminal 
presupposes;  but  by  suggesting  practical  ways  and 
means  by  which  the  criminal  can  be  weaned  from 
the  breast  of  crime. 

Palpably,  a  mere  technicist  won't  subtract  much 
from  the  bulging  prison  bill.  He  must  be  a  very 
respectable  crimijiologist  as  well,  alike  from  the 
practical  and  theoretical  standpoints. 

Much  left  undone  for  the  criminal  that  must  be 
done,  must  be  done  from  the  ground  up,  rather  than 
from  the  clouds  down.  When  so  much  shall  have 
been  done,  will  be  time  enough  to  go  airplaning  with 
esoteric  gas. 


THE  CRIMINOLOGIST 

Criminology  is  the  one  scientific  field  in  which  man, 
puffed  up,  putters  with  unskilled  hand  and  brain. 

Even  the  artisan  and  manipulator  of  inanimate 
objects,  must  win  his  journeyman's  card.  No  such 
thing  is  demanded  of  the  criminologist  by  the  public ; 
hence  the  public  is  seldom  treated  to  the  unvarnished 
criminological   truth. 

Commonly  the  bald  creatures  of  political  pull, 
correctional  chiefs  need  bear  with  them  to  profound 
employment  but  an  itch  to  dabble,  and  the  nerve 
to  flare  their  farthing  candles. 

Gentlemen  do  not  dream  of  reading  lessons  of 
craft  to  the  like  of  doctors,  lawyers,  and  professors ; 
but  they  keenly  relish  the  idea  of  crossing  swords 
with  criminologists,  albeit  the  latter  must  be  some- 
what of  doctor,  lawyer  and  professor,  in  order  to 
prescribe  for  what  makes  and  keeps  men  criminal. 

Despite  the  fact  that  it  is  easier  to  bungle  at  the 
business  of  remodeling  human  clay  than  at  any  other 
activity  on  earth ;  and  that  the  bungling  works  seri- 
ous harm  to  humanity,  the  tinkerer  sets  up  his  moulds 

88 


TJie  Criminologist  89 

much  in  the  spirit  that  a  child  builds  with  blocks, 
then  tumbles  them  over,  except  for  this  difference: 
the  child  learns  as  he  goes  out  of  fancy  and  failure, 
while  the  grown-up  wrecker  remains  anchored  to  his 
puerile  notions  and  notebook. 

The  machinery  of  a  rational  regime  of  reform 
must  be  carefully  manipulated.  Balance  of  parts 
depends  upon  a  nice  swing  of  correlated  pendulums. 
Delicate  adjustments  encompass  the  ever  shifting 
moods  and  susceptibilities  of  a  prison  population, 
in  itself  as  a  hair  trigger  to  vibrate  to  unseemly  dis- 
turbance of  natural  checks  and  impulses.  A  false 
edict  out  of  the  mouth  of  authority  ofttimes  is  suffir 
cient  to  start  the  prison  pot  a'boiling.  A  fool  meas- 
ure directed  in  favor  of  just  one  prisoner,  without 
regard  for  how  it  fits  into  the  general  scheme,  in  the 
end  may  carry  to  adverse  consequence  that  affects 
every  prisoner  in  the  place. 

Favoritism  that  singles  out  the  few  to  the  rela- 
tive deprivation  of  the  many,  surely  stirs  up  the  lat- 
ter, and  can  well  do  so  the  foraier.  What  is  more, 
the  harm  done  may  not  crop  out  in  overt  act  of 
character  whatsoever;  but  it  will  be  most  unfor- 
tunately expressed  in  such  as  listless  work  en- 
tailing lowering  averages  all  along  the  reformative 
line. 

More  quickly  and  more  meticulously  than  any 
other  herded  group  of  humans,  prisoners  pick  to 
pieces   those    charged   with    their    destinies.      Very 


90  Criminal  Types 

naturally  that  is  so.  First,  because  the  average 
criminal  is  pronouncedly  ego-centric;  and  secondly, 
for  the  reason  that  the  false  throws  of  his  supposed 
mentors  and  moulders,  parallel  in  his  mind  his  own 
oblique  thinking  and  doing,  and  leave  him  no  more 
to  blame  for  what  he  did  to  society,  than  they  for 
what  they  do  to  him.  And  there  is  more  than  a  dash 
of  equity  in  the  criminal's  specific  conclusion.  It  is 
up  to  the  criminologist  to  work  skillfully  and  con- 
sistently with  skilled  tools. 

Moreover,  the  decent  felon  digs  much  more  deeply 
to  false  methods  than  he  usually  discloses.  Tempted, 
sorely,  to  make  use  of  easy  means  to  regain  his  lib- 
erty, and  not  being  the  dunce  he  is  falsely  tagged, 
he  plays  up  to  parole  with  the  destructive  weapons 
so  obligingly  placed  in  his  hands ;  but  he  knows  his 
exactions,  and  that  "listless  work  entailing  lowering 
averages  all  along  the  reformative  line"  does  not 
meet  them. 

Particularly  and  essentially,  the  criminal  further 
knows  that  the  true  man  and  criminologist  cannot 
be  induced  to  compromise  with  him  concerning  fun- 
damental questions  of  right  and  wrong;  and  since 
he  is  able  commonly  to  effect  such  compromise,  he 
reserves  his  actual  respect  for  him  against  whom, 
from  ulterior  motive,  he  may  feel  constrained  to 
hurl  the  bitterest  of  anathema. 

At  any  rate,  place  this  upon  the  heart  of  truth: 
the  prison  population  that  considers  itself  perfectly 


The  Criminologist  91 

served  by  the  prison  regime  under  which  it  works, 
is  at  once  suspect.  There's  something  rotten  at  the 
core  of  things.  There  is,  because  out  of  every  cor- 
rectional mass,  between  ten  and  thirty  per  cent  have 
to  be  force-fed  to  a  degree  first  off  of  educative  prac- 
tice and  precept.  They  do,  for  the  standing  reason 
that  for  long  years  they  had  been  fool-fed  into 
habitual  self-indulgence  and  self-centered  acts,  inimi- 
cal to  the  public  peace  and  security.  This,  inclusive 
of  their  false  schooling  as  juvenile  wards  of  the 
State  not  only,  but  by  the  force  of  free-life  probatory 
extensions  most  injudiciously  accorded  in  the  face 
of  repeated  offenses  carrying  constantly  emphasized 
consequences. 

In  the  adult  prison,  therefore,  the  criminologist 
faces  a  most  complex  problem.  Leave  out  the  few 
prisoners  whose  crimes  were  purely  dynamic  crimes, 
and  he  is  called  upon  to  make  over  a  motley  crew. 

Here,  the  sneak-thief  sport,  with  his  fingers  itch- 
ing to  do  their  deft  work  once  again,  and  his  flesh 
and  bones  disintegrating  from  the  poison  he  had 
absorbed  in  the  hell  holes  of  earth. 

There,  snarls  a  marauding,  murderous  parasite, 
with  the  hide  of  the  ox,  the  ideals  of  the  hog,  the 
blood  of  the  fish,  and  the  soul  of  the  flea. 

Beyond,  mother's  and  the  State's  untaught,  un- 
skilled, pampered  pet,  profligate  of  everything  he 
should  save,  miserly  of  everything  he  should  spend, 
nearly  casehardened  to   the  voice  of  authority,   is 


92  Criminal  Types 

certain  that  life  owes  him  easy  picking  and  let  hira 
pick  as  he  chooses  and  chose  while  he  picks. 

Mixed  in  are  many  other  types  of  habitual  of- 
fenders against  the  public  law,  about  equally  divided 
as  between  "home-brew,"  and  the  offspring  of  natural 
breeders  of  social  hyenas  whom  America  has  been 
at  pains  to  take  to  her  bosom  and  nurse  during  the 
past  four  decades. 

Done,  criminally,  nearly  to  a  turn,  are  all,  and 
done  with  a  reckless  flippancy  in  appreciable  measure 
by  pseudo-criminologists,  who  could  not  switch  the 
integrity  of  genuine  criminologists  for  the  merry- 
go-round  prison. 

In  the  first  place,  no  man  is  fit  to  deal  with  the 
socially  derailed  in  American  prisons,  who  is  not 
familiar  with  the  drift  and  natural  determinations 
of  an  appreciable  percentage  of  European  immi- 
grants who  have  sieved  into  America  during  recent 
decades. 

A  whole-seeing  criminologist  must  know  what  it 
means  for  a  man  to  be  a  full-fledged  Camorrist  or 
Mafiausist.  Also,  why  the  lower  and  lowest  grades  of 
such  as  Russian,  Slav  and  Magyar  immigrants  are 
so  easily  induced  by  hyphenates  to  ride  rough  shod. 
True,  the  mostly  American-made  criminal  is  all  too 
common;  yet  had  not  America  allowed  immigrants 
to  root  in  her  social  soil  their  hangover  of  hurts, 
close-corporation  bigotry,  and  instinctive  hatred  of 
organized  social  control,  the  American  atmosphere 


The  Criminologist  93 

would  not  now  be  charged  with  the  spirit  to  tear 
things. 

From  remote  generations  on  down  in  natural  se- 
quence to  the  present  day,  the  criminologist  must 
be  able  to  probe  to  the  particular  instinctive  pre- 
dispositions that  motivate  special  groups  to  unsocial 
and  anti-social  expression;  and  to  trace  parallel 
currents  that  run  through  American  life  and  living 
which  pull  on  the  groups  for  that  kind  of  expression. 

Not  to  be  caught  without  the  possible  key  to  the 
deviated  case,  the  right  man  in  place  will  know  such 
as  his  Freud  and  Kraaft-Ebing.  He  must  not  be 
carried  off  his  balance  by  newly-paired  polysyllables, 
nor  bow  conviction  to  related  ideas  so  framed  as  to 
fight  each  other,  yet  avoid  planting  his  empirical  feet 
where  mental  research  treads  with  unanswerable 
proof.  His  call  thereof  is  to  cuU  knowingly  and 
apply  with  care  in  accordance  with  comparative 
magnitudes. 

To  place  emphasis  properly  is  one  of  the  nice 
duties  of  him  who  seeks  earnestly  to  serve;  and  duty 
no  less  demands  that  he  shall  select  sparingly  of  un- 
proven  hypotheses.  This,  because  the  mental  faddist 
is  the  most  liable  of  all  men  to  be  ridden  rather  than 
riding. 

To  persist  for  truth  in  the  face  of  a  common  skep- 
ticism is  at  once  noble  and  necessary;  but  to  do  it, 
one  must  bear  equipment  more  convincing  tlian  "an 
itch  to  dabble"  and  "the  nerve  to  flare  his  farthing 


94  Criminal  Types 

candle."  Single-seeing  brings  little  of  serviceable 
grist  to  the  reform  mill.  Single-track  doing  brings 
less. 

Whole-seeing  by  a  criminologist  requires  much 
more  of  him  than  a  technically  well-fed  mind.  He 
may,  for  example,  know  generally  about  the  func- 
tioning of  the  human  brain;  but  if  he  judges  falsely 
as  to  mental  overemphasis  affected  by  the  subject 
from  spurious  motive,  he  will  not  score  for  the  man, 
nor  for  himself. 

Padding  of  comparatively  slight  deviations,  cun- 
ningly employed  by  "faking"  and  malingering  crim- 
inals, is  a  common  trick  which  must  be  religiously 
guarded  against.  When  the  padding  is  superinduced 
by  suggestion  from  the  mental  healer,  as  the  writer 
has  known  it  to  be,  his  subject  from  then  on  usually 
takes  the  short  cut  to  the  abyss.  Such  as  psycho- 
analysis, employed  by  other  than  the  master  of  it, 
as  well  as  of  its  correct  application  to  reformative 
processes,  is  a  most  pernicious  tool. 

What  is  sorely  needed  of  heads  of  correctional 
institutions,  is  preparation  for  the  work  from  the 
ground  up  in  the  work ;  preparation  that  enables 
them  to  see  all  of  the  way,  and  therefore  to  prescribe 
for  balanced  schooling  under  a  balanced  regime  of 
reform. 

Beyond  question,  the  present  urge  is  unduly  to 
capitalize  crotchets  of  human  behavior,  the  which, 
far  from  demarcating  the  average  of  prisoners  from 


Tlie  Criminologist  95 

a  very  large  percentage  of  the  general  mass  of  man- 
kind, actually  predicate  them  as  slightly  emphasized 
examples  of  that  percentage  of  the  mass ;  a  prisoner 
percentage  the  more  closely  welded  to  the  "crotchets" 
through  false  bringing-up  and  environment  in  free 
life,  up  from  the  cradle. 

Aside  from  prisoners  who  are  congenitally  scarred 
in  unusual  degree,  closely-allied  parallels  are  to  be 
drawn  as  between  thousands  of  prisoners  and  mil- 
lions of  freemen. 

This  one  primes  a  hair-trigger  temper,  rashly 
expressed  out  of  an  unreasoning  mind;  also,  he  will 
quite  reliably  pile  on  somewhat  of  the  temper  and 
unreasoning,  and  do  it  knowingly.  This,  even  as 
to  the  incipient  epileptic. 

That  one,  coarse  in  fibre,  cruel  by  instinct,  com- 
paratively insensible  to  pain  endured  or  inflicted, 
would  crack  his  way  to  what  he  wants  with  a  blud- 
geon. 

An  ego-centric  third,  cursed  alike  with  a  smatter- 
ing of  knowledge  or  skill,  and  with  coddling  by  so- 
ciety into  a  certain  criminal  cunning,  resents  the 
setting  on  him  of  reformative  brakes  by  those 
he  has  been  encouraged  to  rate  his  intellectual 
inferiors. 

A  fourth,  and  always  a  major  fourth,  will  make 
reams  of  affidavits  to  the  effect  that  no  one  or  thing 
on  earth  ever  gave  him  a  show  for  his  white  ally. 
Betimes,  his  contentions  carry  more  than  a  kernel 


96  Criminal  Types 

of  truth;  but  usually  he  is  just  a  flim-flamining  liar 
and  slacker,  who  elects  to  cache  tossed  donatives. 

And  so  on,  and  on,  with  briefs  which  but  shadow 
forth  human  nature  as  it  may  be  observed  where 
men  foregather. 

By  and  large,  there  is  nothing  hidden,  nothing 
esoteric  about  the  causes  for  the  near-normal  crimi- 
nal. Primarily,  they  rest  appreciably  in  things  that 
society  either  directly  or  indirectly  encouraged  him 
to  do  or  leave  undone;  as  for  just  one  example:  the 
time  and  place  for  society  to  have  it  out  with  the 
swashbuckling  little  brute,  is  in  the  primary  grade  at 
public  school.  Even  then  society  may  be  about  six 
years  too  late;  but,  in  the  average,  there  will  have 
been  time  enough,  did  Americans  follow  through 
under  the  recommendations  of  the  great  bulk  of 
mentors  who  must,  in  large  measure,  build  America's 
youth  to  stand  life's  stress. 

But  not  at  all.  The  last  and  best  procedure  of 
which  Americans  make  use  in  the  case  of  an  espe- 
cially refractory,  so-dubbed  "incorrigible"  school- 
boy, is  to  expel  him  from  the  public  schools ;  which  is 
to  say:  to  pass  him  up  to  such  as  gutter-snipe  gang- 
sters to  complete  his  anti-social  education.  And  if 
the  lad  lands  in  a  juvenile  school  of  reform  whose 
staff  is  shackled  by  banal  prescriptions  and  pre- 
scriptions of  lay  extraction,  hope  of  reclaiming  him 
there  or  thereafter  for  social  usages  is  so  close  to 
nil  as  to  be  negligible. 


Tlie  Criminologist  97 

Turned  loose  upon  society  from  the  juvenile  school 
when  reformatively  he  is  not  even  warmed  up,  he 
quickly  finds  his  way  to  a  reformatory  where,  if 
the  actual  criminologist  prescribes,  proscribes,  and 
prosecutes,  he  stands  a  bare  fighting  chance  to  pull 
up  and  win  out;  but  where,  if  compromise  is  again 
effected  with  his  instinctive  predilections,  expressed 
in  the  habitual  act,  he  is  groomed  to  keep  keepers 
agog  in  a  prison  of  last  resort.  And  if  the  convict 
prison  can  do  no  better  than  intrust  the  prison  care 
of  him  to  a  junta  of  convicted  felons,  he  will,  in  all 
human  probability,  one  day  go  gun-hung  and  ride 
to  kill. 

So  much  is  as  one  page  out  of  a  bulky  volume,  the 
contents  of  which,  to  the  last  syllable,  the  criminolo- 
gist needs  must  have  at  his  tongue's  end. 

Gentlemen  hold  diff'erently.  Medical  men  particu- 
larly assert  that  none  but  those  of  their  clan  are 
fitted  to  prescribe  for  criminals.  Passing  the  fact 
that  the  highest-hung  fruit  on  the  reform  tree  tempts 
to  far-flung  reaching  by  the  "clan,"  and  to  recipro- 
cal buttering  of  bread  within  the  clan,  the  cardinal 
assertion  baldly  begs  the  truth. 

Just  like  any  other  man,  a  doctor  of  medicine,  or 
psycho-analyst,  or  alienist,  might  or  might  not  make 
a  serviceable  criminologist.  That  will  depend  upon 
his  natural  instincts,  his  instincts  acquired  through 
his  touch  with  men,  affairs  and  books,  his  gifts  as  a 
leader  and  organizer,  and  essentially,  his  capacity 


98  CrijTiinal  Types 

to  create  and  maintain  a  refonnativc  mill  that  auto- 
matically separates  wheat  and  chaff.  Thereof,  his 
ability  to  mark  mental  concept  and  physical  altera- 
tion is  a  positive  asset;  yet  just  an  asset,  which  will 
change  to  a  liability  shall  he  make  a  fetich  of  his 
asset  and  wax  purblind  to  bigger  things. 

Whatever  the  conclusions  of  such  as  the  psycho- 
analyst as  to  the  ultimate  causes — never  singular 
cause,  as  some  assert — for  the  grand  average  of  the 
imprisoned,  amelioration  of  their  plight  reduces  to 
common  sense,  rather  than  to  uncommon  knowledge. 

It  is  essentially  informing,  for  instance,  if  true, 
that  the  etiology  of  the  erotic  neuroses  particularly 
harks  back  to  pinafore  days ;  that  the  sexual  impres- 
sions of  early  childhood  are  piled  up  in  the  cellar  of 
the  brain,  there  subconsciously  to  shape  the  sexual 
manifestations  of  the  adult  life  of  the  subject — 
unless  he  enlists  the  aid  of  the  psycho-analyst  to 
bring  the  deep-lying  layers  to  the  surface,  and  to 
lead  him  to  rational  thought  and  action.  It  is 
"essentially  informing,"  because  it  is  in  line  with 
coordinate  and  consanguine  contentions  which  crim- 
inologists have  dinned  for  long  years  into  the  public 
ear  to  no  tangible  purpose. 

The  keynote  of  the  dinning  has  been  that  even  a 
budding  bird-dog  will  take  a  lot  of  breaking  of  tricks 
taught  him  when  he  was  a  puppy.  In  puppyhood  he 
may  be  led  engagingly  to  lead  and  loaf;  whereas,  if 
allowed  to  hunt  freely  to  his  nose  from  certain  of  his 


The  Criminologist  99 

natural  instincts  during  the  plastic  years,  recourse 
then  by  his  trainer  to  such  as  the  spiked  collar  may 
well  leave  him  no  more  serviceable  on  the  hunting  field 
than  is  a  confused  bungler.  Just  so,  relatively, 
traces  the  history  of  the  budding  criminal. 

However,  few  dogs  and  fewer  lads  are  utterly 
spoiled  by  one  puppy-trick.  In  the  case  of  the  lad, 
such  as  oversex  with  a  strong  tendency  to  perverted 
sexual  expression,  may  strike  through  from  close  to 
the  cradle;  but  it  will  not  do  to  pounce  upon  it  as 
being  the  singular  cause  for  his  social  failure.  There 
will  be  cross  currents,  some  of  them  usually  of  con- 
genital base,  otliers  running  with  the  sum  of  his 
bringing-up,  that  will  intensify  the  subliminal  im- 
pulse tliat  drives  him.  Ordinarily,  he  shall  not  have 
drunk  of  the  very  dregs,  until  he  shall  have  abided 
with  criminals,  or  worse  than  criminals,  in  their 
caves. 

In  any  case,  as  he  is  he  is  for  the  criminologist  to 
make  over.  Not  the  mere  specialist,  mind  you,  for 
the  mere  specialist  cannot  have  been  equipped  for 
the  job — save  that  while  taking  on  his  special 
knowledge  he  had  also  conned  the  necessity  for  in- 
terlocking of  the  cardinal  cogs  of  the  reform  mill, 
and  done  it  an  active  agent  for  not  less  than  five 
years  in  the  midst  of  criminals.  And  even  at  that 
he  will  not  cut  a  swath  for  reformative  results,  shall 
he  set  his  face  against  the  catholic  call  upon  him,  in 
order  to  fondle  any  fetich  whatsoever. 


100  Criminal  Types 

By  the  same  token,  the  criminologist  should  be  the 
last  man  to  discourage  earnest  research  for  better 
means  by  which  to  unmask  the  causes  for  the  crim- 
inal and  his  crimes. 

The  criminal  and  his  crimes  root,  in  the  main,  in 
bad  practice  become  consecutively  worse  practice, 
finally  fastened  to  him  by  the  ever-tightening  straps 
of  habit.  When  the  reformatory  gets  him,  he  usually 
bears  the  marks  in  mind,  body  and  soul,  of  the  pace 
that  kills. 

Palpably,  then,  the  primal  duty  of  the  reforma- 
tory is  to  strip  for  reformative  action  with  the  de- 
termination to  delete  every  influence  from  training 
that  is  conducive  of  the  state  of  mind  the  average  lad 
is  in  when  he  is  received  by  a  reformatory.  The 
first  duty  of  the  criminologist  will  be  to  impress  the 
newly-imprisoned  offender  that  he  will  be  held  to 
lend  his  voluntary  aid  in  arresting  his  spurious  pre- 
dispositions, taken  on  either  in  free  or  former  prison 
life. 

Endless  variations  of  predispositions  to  criminal 
conduct  confront  the  criminologist ;  but  determina- 
tion to  be  and  remain  at  once  partly  predal  parasite, 
and  partly  all-around  brutal  sporting  bull,  caps 
them  all ;  indeed,  decision  to  horn  in  with  spurious 
sportsmen,  and  to  breeze  along  as  sporting  drones 
in  lowest  down  sporting  company,  inclusive  of  the 
bawd,  commonly  decides  for  the  initial  criminal  act. 

Therefore,  to  lend  emphasis  to  the  sporting  sched- 


The  Criminologist  101 

ule  of  a  prison  is,  in  itself,  most  pernicious  sugges- 
tion ;  and  further  to  cheat  educative  measures  in 
order  to  feature  sporting  activities,  subjects  spon- 
sors of  that  procedure  to  unanswerable  stricture. 
In  such  instance  it  would  be  found  that  the  ex- 
amined had  never  been  purged  of  his  "puppy  tricks" ; 
that  he  stands  athwart  of  a  great  and  grave  work. 

Because  judiciously  prescribed  and  executed  exer- 
cise in  free  air  goes  hand  in  hand  with  reformative 
processes,  the  criminologist  will  see  to  it  that  all- 
sufficient  of  it  is  accorded  prisoners.  Also,  he  will 
make  sure  that  the  prison  field  of  recreation  is  not 
debased  to  ground  on  which  such  as  the  "rough- 
house"  disturber  and  agitator  may  influence  the  mass 
to  express  the  like  of  his  oblique  thoughts  and  acts. 
And  also,  he  will  make  it  very  plain  that  free-hand 
recreation  in  the  reformative  scheme  is  out  of  the 
good  hearts  of  the  management,  and  is  an  incidental 
thing  apart,  as  compared  with  the  social  exactions 
upon  prisoners  to  win  cardinal  knowledge  and  skill. 
The  reverse  procedure  has  been  quite  the  vogue  in 
many  of  America's  houses  of  correction.  There- 
fore, this  paragraph  ought  to  be  printed  in  capitals. 

Nothing  so  offends  common  sense  as  does  the 
prison,  playhouse,  in  normal  times  crowded  with 
ignorant,  unskilled,  criminous  young  men,  who  can 
put  their  fingers  on  their  sporting  dives  as  charge- 
able with  their  plight  as  prisoners.  Burned  in  the 
baking  by  corrosive  sports,  they  need  above  all  else 


102  Criminal  Types 

to  get  quit  of  it,  and  to  put  on  the  habit  of  industry, 
both  mental  and  physical. 

The  "habit"  will  not  be  slipped  on.  Counter 
habit,  taken  on  usually  from  their  first  conscious 
thoughts,  will  motivate  them  to  sip  of  this  and  that ; 
to  plan  for  variety  of  employment  without  regard 
for  bread-winning  results  and  their  social  rehabili- 
tation. 

Here,  at  once,  the  brakes  must  be  set  down  hard, 
else  their  prison  days  will  have  been  as  "rolling 
stones'*  that  "gather  no  moss."  Furthermore,  a 
nearly  perfect  conduct  record  will  not,  as  a  general 
proposition,  alter  the  case  in  the  least;  in  fact,  the 
lad  who  cunningly  plays  up  to  conduct,  and  down 
to  fundamental  equipment,  is  an  intrinsic  faker,  and 
should  not  be  granted  a  parole  while  he  fakes. 

Nothing  short  of  the  prisoner*s  consecutive,  con- 
centrated endeavor  along  industrial  and  associated 
lines,  backed  by  his  will  to  adjust  to  the  free-life 
exactions  upon  him,  will  serve  either  the  State  or 
him. 

Lay  gentlemen,  and  their  jockeys  within  prison 
confines,  have  freely  prescribed  nostrums  of  reform 
that  are  diametrically  opposed  to  the  intrinsic  mean- 
ing of  the  preceding  paragraph. 

Result?  Ask  any  chief  of  police  of  any  city  in 
America.  Do  not  ask  the  dream-drugged,  nor  their 
retainers,  who  will  switch  you  off  for  a  ballooning 
after  chimeras  in  the  mist-swept  clouds.    Just  recall 


The  Criminologist  103 

that  the  American  recidivistic  criminal  holds  the 
world's  record  by  a  furlong  to  the  mile ;  that  he  does 
so  under  mundane  pressure  in  the  grand  majority  of 
instances ;  and  that  airplaning  with  and  for  him 
must  eventuate  in  a  crash  to  earth,  whereon  and 
whereof  he  made  his  anti-social  bed,  and  whereon  and 
whereof  he  must  make  it  over — piece  by  piece. 

Knowledge  of  all  such  and  sundry,  with  equip- 
ment with  which  to  assure  emphasis  on  essential 
values,  must  the  criminologist  possess,  and  be  able 
to  apply.  He  cannot  have  acquired  specific  means 
to  that  end  a'circling  in  a  swivel  chair,  and  he 
won't  get  anywhere  with  any  kind  of  preparation 
while  listening  to  other  than  the  voice  of  reason, 
established  in  harmony  with  the  cumulative  study, 
observation  and  experience  of  mankind. 


VI 

LINKS  IN  THE  CHAIN  OF  CRIME 

Of  "Bogy,"  early-day  champion  telegrapher  of 
the  United  States,  it  was  alleged  by  those  of  his 
craft:  "It's  Bogy  here,  Bogy  there,  Bogy  almost 
anywhere.'* 

Blessed  with  an  alert,  incisive  brain  naturally 
coordinated  with  the  quickest  of  terminal  reflexes. 
Bogy  was  drawn  to  the  key  when  even  "duplex" 
telegraphy  was  a  far-removed  possibility.  Also,  he 
was  rated  an  electrician  when  the  "Electrical  World" 
issued  a  fourpage  sheet  dotted  with  elementary  dia- 
grams and  analyses,  vulgar  craftsmen  would  now 
pronounce  kindergarten  stuff. 

As  to  natural  gifts,  it  is  probable  that  Thomas 
A.  Edison  hadn't  a  very  great  deal  the  edge  on  Bogy, 
his  contemporary ;  indeed,  if  tradition  is  to  be  ac- 
cepted, both,  when  young,  were  afllicted  with  an  over- 
dose of  inertia,  though  Eddson  even  then  spent 
much  of  his  time  dabbling  with  electrical  instru- 
ments. 

Edison,  so  the  tale  runs,  stuck  to  the  home  base 
and  to  the  dabbling,  until  there  was  born  in  him  the 

104 


Links  in  the  Chain  of  Crime  105 

desire  to  do  something  no  other  man  had  done,  and 
to  serve  his  fellowmen  in  the  doing.  In  due  time  the 
"inertia"  gave  place  to  a  power  of  consecutive,  con- 
centrated effort,  matched  but  few  times  in  the  annals 
of  human  endeavor. 

Edison  finally  reached  the  stage  where  he  blessed 
work  and  was  blessed  by  it ;  and  to-day,  when  crowd- 
ing close  to  four-score-and-ten,  "Work  is  worship" 
with  him,  and  none  need  expect  his  approbation  who 
trains  the  clock  eye,  while  measuring  commensurate 
labor  with  sand  that  has  run. 

Bogy,  struck  with  an  instinctive  distaste  for  buck- 
ling to  and  blocking  out  results  agreeably  with  his 
bulking  gifts,  and  periodically  by  an  engulfing  wave 
of  wanderlust,  wouldn't  plant  himself  and  take  root. 
He  could  both  "send"  and  "receive'  faster  than  any 
man  on  earth.  He  was  the  best  of  fellows  when 
"lush";  but  he  couldn't  control  either  the  soles  of 
his  feet,  or  the  feet  of  his  brain.  Therefore  'twas 
Bogy  in  America  in  April,  Canada  in  July,  Eng- 
land in  October,  and  Australia  in  December. 

Bogy,  the  personification  of  the  aimless,  senseless 
globe-trotter.  Bogy,  distributing  his  precious  be- 
longings in  bits  about  the  globe.  Bogy,  sensing  not 
the  least  of  responsibility  unto  himself,  to  man  or 
his  Maker,  to  properly  express  princely  attributes. 
Bogy,  lighting  like  the  butterfly  here  for  a  sip,  there 
for  a  sip,  then  making  tangentially  for  other  fields 
and  cheap  sweets. 


106  Criminal  Types 

Writing  the  author  about  Bogy,  Edison  related: 
"I  heard  a  funny  one  about  Bogy :  One  day  he 
walked  into  the  New  York  Produce  exchange,  and 
going  to  the  W.  U.  booth  asked  the  loan  of  a  dol- 
lar from  the  operator.  Bogy  said,  'I  am  Bogy ;  have 
you  never  heard  of  me?*  The  operator  said  *No.' 
'Well,'  says  Bogy,  *you  must  be  a  helluvanopera- 
tor.'  " 

The  last  time  the  writer  saw  Bogy,  he  was  down- 
and-out,  unblushingly  "hitting"  his  home  friends  for 
petty  largesse,  the  bulk  of  which  went  for  lager 
beer — his  arch  enemy. 

Just  why  did  beer  poison  Bogy's  life?  Because 
it  nailed  him  to  environment  that  insidiously  sapped 
his  manhood,  along  with  his  mental  and  manual  skill. 
He  shuffled  from  the  subscriber  for  the  last  time  a 
nerve-shattered  derelict.  He  had  chosen  one  of 
scores  of  pikes  over  which  young  men  travel  at  a 
pace  that  kills  pride  in  worthy  work. 

It  wasn't  in  Bogy  to  take  the  final  leap  into  a  life 
of  crime,  He  was  bigger  than  that  at  his  littlest. 
Besides,  he  lacked  nerve  to  accept  the  gambler's 
chance  at  the  game  of  predation.  Further,  his  old 
friends  couldn't  say  one  nay  whose  purse  was  open 
to  all  when,  as  he  put  it,  he  was  "in  luck." 

But  Bogies  there  are,  thousands  of  them,  who, 
given  but  an  added  dash  of  degenerate  deviltry,  are 
drawn  as  naturally  to  criminal  shoals  as  needle  to 
magnet;  shoals,  many  of  which  break  from  a  treach- 


Links  in  the  Chain  of  Crvme  107 

erous  undertow,  many  more  of  wliich  cannot  be 
charted  so  as  to  arrest  the  serious  attention  of  up- 
coming lads,  and  some  of  which  none  can  hope  to 
avoid  entirely,  save  by  the  help  of  Him  Who  alone 
can  fend  all  of  the  thrusts  of  temptation. 

Basically,  however,  Bogy  habitually  expressed 
three  of  the  prime  attributes  of  the  predal  felon,  in 
that  he  wouldn't  work  consecutively,  was  ego-centric 
to  the  pitiable  point,  and  would  lead  a  complex, 
caraal,  varied,  and  parasitic  life.  Also,  in  going 
out  for,  and  feeding  on,  unearned  increment,  he 
shadowed  forth  incipiently  the  all-pervasive  moral 
criminal  whom  no  penal  code  feazes,  yet  he  wlio, 
because  of  his  oblique  principles  and  practices,  is 
chargeable  more  than  another  for  both  the  birth 
and  the  oninish  of  crime. 

Fundamentally,  nearly  all  of  crime  reaches  to  myr^ 
lads  of  things  done  and  left  undone  by  those,  the 
great  majority  of  whom  never  suspicioned  that  they 
were  shoving  criminal  pawns  into  play. 

Others  baldly  mark  anti-social  cards  thusly,  for 
example:  Here's  a  shark  who  schemes  grossly  to 
manipulate  price  levels  on  commodities,  when  the 
strings  to  millions  of  lean  purses  are  already 
stretched  to  the  snapping  point. 

"All  the  traffic  will  bear !"  is  the  slogan  of  this 
jobbing  Shylock,  who  presses  for  the  usurer's  pounds 
of  flesh  money,  e'en  to  the  point  of  taking  the  very 
heart  out  of  the  mass  of  his  countrymen. 


108  Criminal  Types 

The  bitterness  of  such  meanest  of  wholesale 
thievery  consists  in  the  fact  that  it  is  commonly 
engineered  to  the  end  that  the  thieves  and  their  re- 
tainers may  flaunt  brassy  symbols  of  ill-gotten  gain 
in  the  faces  of  those  whose  bent  backs  are  about  all 
that  is  left  them  to  show  for  their  having  been  the 
primary  producers  of  those  symbols. 

There's  a  faultlessly-clothed  and  groomed  crook 
whose  soft  palm  reaches  for  what  he  knows  to  be  of 
value  its  weight  in  paper:  the  which  he  is  about  to 
exchange  obligingly  for  what  he  knows  to  be  the  bulk 
of  a  life's  savings,  won  by  patient  toil  against  great 
odds. 

Down  to  the  depths,  along  with  his  dupe,  go  the 
wife  and  children  of  the  "poor  fish."  The  man  and 
his  mate  must  retrace,  retrench,  and  take  up  the  old 
grind  at  a  time  when  the  inevitable  toll  takes  of  both 
spirit  and  flesh.  But  what's  a  little  thing  like  that 
to  him  who  must  have  his  old  wine,  young  things,  and 
"dough"  with  which  to  double  his  bets  while  he  makes 
the  grand  rounds  of  the  sporting  sentry  boxes  ?  This 
thinly-veneered,  mulcting  type  of  parasite  pirouettes 
debonairly  over  the  spaces  of  the  "movie"  screen, 
where  he  takes  up  his  abode  in  the  indiscriminating 
hearts  of  younglings. 

Watch  that  bull-jowled  "promotor"  of  the  pug- 
ugly  sport — another  type  of  human  cuckoo.  Get 
the  ghoulish  glint  in  his  eyes  as  he  "spills"  vernac- 
ular of  the  gutter  telling  an  instinctively  fine  buckra 


Links  in  the  Chain  of  Crime  109 

of  a  "boy'*  what  a  "chump"  he'd  be  to  go  on  playing 
the  mule  at  productive  work,  when  he  "packs  a 
double  punch"  with  which  to  land  him  in  the  midst  of 
"easy  pickin'."  Observe  the  war  within  the  lad  as 
between  innate  decency  and,  in  a  sense,  laudable  de- 
sire for  the  limelight  and  "soft"  money. 

Follow  the  lad  in  the  prize  ring  six  months  later. 
Note  his  unerring  judgment  of  distance;  his  con- 
tainedness  and  resourcefulness  under  whirlwind  as- 
sault; his  chloroforming  blow,  held  coolly  for  the 
"opening"  he  seeks,  then  delivered  lightning-like  to 
the  part  of  the  body  of  his  adversary  he  had  been 
patiently  "playing"  for;  see  his  battered,  bleeding, 
and  befuddled  foe  borne  from  the  ring,  supported 
by  his  "seconds" ;  and  then  think  on  high  qualities 
of  gameness  and  skill,  matched  by  a  fine  mentality 
and  piston-power  and  reaction  of  muscle,  given  over, 
as  an  occupation,  to  the  spilling  of  his  brother's 
blood,  for  a  price  accursed  in  the  sight  of  every  good 
thing. 

You  couldn't  miss  the  practical  "side  kick"  of  such 
as  the  "professor"  pug;  you  couldn't,  from  church 
portal  to  the  padded  cell  of  a  convict  prison.  He's 
no  low-down  mixer  with  mud  larks — not  he!  Should 
you  suggest  such  a  thing,  he'd  bristle  and  bark.  And 
had  you  the  temerity  to  propose  introduction  to  his 
sister  of  even  a  pugilistic  "champion"  he'd  probably 
sink  his  mental  teeth  into  you.  Agreeably  with  the 
social  ear,  he  avoids  war  of  words  over  his  Maker's 


110  Criminal  Types 

edict:  "The  meek  shall  inherit  the  eath";  but  by 
nature  he  craves  action  of  the  kind  that  left  the 
Roman  amphitheatre  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  a 
dawning  civilization  such  as  the  Christ  envisaged. 
And  so,  you  will  find  him  enthusiastically  back  of 
the  kind  of  "Big  Brothering  of  Boys"  that  pits  mere 
bantams  of  kids  against  each  other  in  a  brutal 
"bout"  to  a  "finish." 

The  covered  lie  comes  easy,  of  course;  hence,  the 
bestial  business  is  euphemistically  touted  as  "box- 
ing exhibitions";  boxing,  mark  you,  that  leaves  a 
pigmy  of  a  lad  cut  and  slashed,  stretched  senseless, 
face  downward,  with  the  blood  trickling  from  his 
nose  and  ears  to  the  canvas. 

Probably  in  just  one  "go"  the  lad  had  taken  on 
external  marks  that  will  seriously  handicap  him  for 
all  of  his  earthly  time;  very  possibly  he  had  suf- 
fered internal  injury  that  will  rise  up  along  about 
the  medial  line  of  life,  and  cut  him  off;  and  surely  he 
had  been  imbued  with  instincts  which,  more  than  all 
other  instincts,  impelled  purblind  mortals  to  rush 
for  the  late  shambles  as  for  a  barbecue. 

School  lads  ruthlessly  spill  human  blood  for 
amusement,  and  at  the  same  time  seek  to  establish 
in  the  souls  of  men  "a  peace  that  passeth  under- 
standing"? Every  man  who  thinks  beyond  the  tip 
of  his  nose,  knows  that  the  two  propositions  are  pre- 
posterously antithetic ;  that  historians  of  the  future 
will  have  so  declared  them ;  and  that  Almightly  God 


Links  in  the  Chain  of  Crime  111 

puts  his  curse  upon  the  doubled  fist,  let  the  doubling 
take  what  form  it  may,  other  than  in  defense  of 
sacred  rights. 

Meet  the  "glad-liand,"  ubiquitous  charlatan: 
Janus-faced,  side-stepping  straddler;  monkey-on-a- 
stick  to  the  last  touch;  echo  of  the  last  voice;  hand 
behind  his  back  for  "cash" — no  paper,  no  witnesses, 
since  he  is  clever  as  the  foraging  fox  is  clever ;  plausi- 
ble peddler  of  light  promises  with  which  to  ease  the 
going  to  his  goal ;  insinuating  distributer  of  tainted 
largesse;  any  man's  man  so  he  be  the  highest  bid- 
der ;  no  man's  man  who  despises  disloyal  duplicity ; 
mixer  with  mixers  of  noxious  social  broth,  this  man- 
mongrel  of  varied  type  and  intensity  of  crass  cun- 
ning, is  the  most  craven  of  moral  cowards,  in  that 
he  cannot  be  brought  to  an  accounting  with  con- 
science. Were  he  "hitched  to  a  star,"  he'd  just  nat- 
urally fix  his  gaze  on  the  abyss.  Everywhere  he 
interposes  the  oblique  act  to  queer  the  big  thing. 
In  reform  endeavor,  he  plays  to  hands  that  land 
him  within  the  big  money,  and  let  intrinsic  reforma- 
tive processes  go  hang. 

The  so-called  "good  mixer"  will  measure  to  any 
length  of  tape.  At  his  best,  he  will  stretch  to  the 
size  of  a  Warren  G.  Harding,  motivated  by  impulse 
to  reduce  friction  engendered  by  clashing  convictions. 
He  seldom  does  less  than  well,  because  he  is  guided 
by  a  genuine  desire  to  help  ease  the  heart  of  con- 
tention, through  striking  a  working  balance  and  thus 


112  Criminal  Types 

leaving  the  contenders  with  hands  clasped.  Such 
serve  God  in  serving  man. 

At  his  worst,  he  will  shrink  to  the  stature  of  the 
political  man-of-all-work.  His  part  it  is  to  veer 
votes  to  suit  his  paymasters.  What  his  instru- 
ments to  hand?  Ask  him,  since  the  print  of  a  para- 
graph can  encompass  but  a  modicum  of  his  machina- 
tions. 

From  ward  heeler  to  worshipful  woman,  this  sub- 
terranean trickster  is  charged  with  selection  of  tJi^ 
tool  that  will  turn  the  trick. 

The  "instrument"  may  take  the  form  of  a  crass 
bid  in  coin  of  the  realm  for  such  as  marshalling  of 
thugs  to  intimidate  units  of  the  opposition  at  the 
polls,  and  to  line  up  "floaters" ;  or  to  dig  up  de- 
tached matter  written  or  spoken  by  an  opponent, 
and  so  garnish  and  garble  it  as  to  rob  it  of  the 
meaning  the  original  spokesman,  or  writer,  intended 
it  should  convey ;  or  to  shout  from  the  house  tops 
the  minute  details  of  a  natural  fault,  buried  for  long 
years  under  the  statute  of  limitations,  and  through 
the  offender  having  taken  on  nobility  of  soul  after 
having  squared  the  account,  in  so  far  as  it  could 
be  squared;  or  to  persist  in  a  campaign  of  slander 
concerning  allegations  that  had  time  and  again  been 
discredited  through  due  processes  of  unquestionable 
research ;  or  to  stir  up  antagonisms  of  class  and 
creed  that  persist  beyond  the  polls,  and  further  close 
the  eyes  of  single-seeing  partisans  and  bigots.     In 


Links  in  the  Chain  of  Crime  113 

short,  to  deal  dirt-daubed  deuces  from  the  bottom  of 
the  political  deck,  e'en  though  by  so  doing  he  out- 
rages decency,  and  reverses  the  Great  Pleader,  Who 
cautioned  so  often  for  charity  in  human  judgments. 

Who  does  not  know  the  legal  trimmer  whose  best 
hold  is  debasement  of  the  trademark  of  his  craft? 
The  basic  bones  of  jurisprudence,  and  the  ethics  of 
his  profession,  alike  make  it  morally  incumbent  upon 
a  lawyer  to  see  justice  done — no  more,  no  less.  True, 
the  human  mind  in  all  of  its  functioning  is  fallible. 
There  will  be  honest  differences  of  interpretation  as 
to  what  constitutes  justice,  agreeably  with  legal 
lore,  written  and  traditional;  but  there  can  be  no 
defense  of  the  shyster  whose  practice  reduces  mainly 
to  attempts  at  derailing  justice;  of  him  who  elects  to 
effect  inequitable  exchange,  or  to  defeat  the  aims  of 
law  framed  to  assure  the  common  peace  and  security. 

Because  legions  of  spurious  practitioners  the 
country  over  lend  themselves  to  grease  the  going  for 
recidivistic  criminals,  it  is  largely  that  the  latter 
take  long  and  desperate  chances  they  would  not  dare 
otherwise.  The  reason  given  also  explains  in  posi- 
tive part  why  the  American  marauder  is  flippantly 
the  most  deadly  of  any  of  his  ilk  in  the  world;  and 
why  he  constantly  mounts  in  numbers  beyond  those 
of  any  other  nation. 

To  the  barterers  of  the  bebadged:  to  those  in- 
trusted with  the  public  safety  on  the  first  lines  of 
social  defense,  it  is  left  to  lengthen  the  long  odds 


114  Criminal  Types 

yielded  the  criminal  in  his  pursuit  of  crime.  Shame- 
ful, and  hard  to  tell  as  it  is  of  a  body  of  men,  the 
grand  majority  of  whom  remain  faithful  to  their 
oaths  of  office,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  a  con- 
stantly increasing  percentage  of  active  peace  officers 
of  cities  of  the  first  class  particularly,  wink  at  penal 
offenses  not  only,  but  actually  lock  arms  with  felon- 
ious offenders  in  the  landing  of  all  kinds  of  unlawful 
loot.  Moreover,  it  is  by  no  means  exceptional  for 
policemen  to  hold  criminous  club  over  the  heads  of 
certain  of  ex-prisoners  who,  given  a  fair  fighting 
chance,  probably  would  have  "pulled  straight"  after 
parole  from  prison.  And  moreover,  it  has  been 
charged  freely,  betimes  established  in  courts  of  law, 
that  morally-debauched  chieftains  had  impelled 
police  pawns  to  urge  criminals  to  greater  activity 
in  the  garnering  of  tainted  spoils,  in  the  division  of 
which,  king-pin  grafters  declared  themselves  "in'* 
for  the  lion's  share. 

And  then,  as  if  to  bind  the  whole  nefarious  busi- 
ness, self-nominated  lay  reformers  with  itch  for 
place  and  portion,  or  for  specific  power  and  control, 
or  for  a  cheap  popularity  with  prisoners,  or  to  be 
cited  as  bellwethers  of  reform,  or  from  just  ornery 
ignorance,  couldn't  rest  satisfied  until  they  had  de- 
leted from  reformative  measures  next  to  the  last  of 
directive  virtue;  and  from  the  commission  of  crime, 
drawn  all  but  the  sterile  sting  of  consequence.  This, 
in  the  first  instance,  through  so  ordering  educative 


Links  in  the  Chain  of  Crime  115 

processes  as  to  strip  them  of  fundamental  efficience, 
while  at  tiie  same  time  capitalizing  by-play  charged 
both  with  the  spirit  and  practices  of  the  would-be 
parasitic  sport;  and  in  the  second  jnfstance,  by 
granting  paroles  based  mainly  on  behavior,  instead 
of  on  an  acquired  ability  in  the  manual  and  auxiliary 
processes,  sufficient  to  meet  free-life  exactions  at 
honest  endeavor. 

More  than  any  other  class  of  social  wreckers,  the 
latter  individuals  have  been  blamable  for  the  rough- 
riding  killer ;  firstly,  because  they  have  been  men, 
by  and  large,  who  should  have  been  so  pestled  in  the 
social  crucible  as  to  have  made  it  practically  impos- 
sible for  them  to  have  veered  so  grossly  from  essen- 
tial human  values,  while  confounding  magnitudes ; 
and  secondly,  for  the  reason  that  they  have  wrecked 
in  the  teeth  of  the  most  solemn  opposition  of  those 
who  have  made  a  life's  concentrated  study  of  that 
which  makes  and  keeps  men  criminal :  done  it  while 
breaking  bread  with  criminals,  and  done  it  with  due 
regard  for  every  known  finite  and  infinite  influence 
that  makes  for  the  social  rehabilition  of  the  repeat- 
ing felon. 

This  one's  fetich  had  to  function  before  all  else; 
that  one's  fad  needs  must  go  a'riding,  and  no  matter 
that  the  fundamentals  limped  on  crutches ;  another 
imagined  himself  the  Moses  to  lead  all  to  the  re- 
formative land  of  promise;  a  fourth  was  cock-sure 
of  his  strictly  individual  balm  with  which  to  work 


116  Criminal  Types 

miracles  of  reform;  yet  had  all  of  their  magic  been 
combined,  and  used  to  the  height  of  its  power,  it 
wouldn't  have  made  so  much  as  a  dent  in  case-hard- 
ened crime;  it  wouldn't,  because  nothing  less  than 
all-around  preparedness  to  put  off  crime  will  make 
a  dent  in  crime ;  and  that's  exactly  what  our  friends 
have  maneuvred  to  kill,  is  the  ability  of  singularly 
needy  fellows  to  upstand  in  their  own  shoes  and  make 
an  honest  living. 

Baseball  crowned  King!  Brutalities  named  to  con- 
ceal their  intrinsic  curse!  Banal  amusements  still 
adjusted  to  the  hands  and  minds  of  nearly-confirmed 
social  slackers !  Perquisites  stretched  to  the  point 
of  parting  company  with  common  sense !  Favoritism 
bestowed  where  it  would  supposedly  carry  for  the 
greatest  advertising  power  in  free  life !  Gross  crim- 
inals, naturally  of  the  ground-hog  type,  and  the 
nucleus  of  crime,  practically  left  either  to  shift  for 
themselves,  or  smugly  passed  up  to  others  for  solu- 
tion of  their  pitiable  problems !  The  gauge  of  re- 
formative effort  regulated  to  the  degenerate  reac- 
tions of  instinctive  social  wolves,  at  the  expense  of 
their  sore  needs !  And  all  done  as  if  done  from  the 
peak  of  the  hill  of  finite  prescience ;  in  very  fact, 
with  gratuitous  disregard  of  all  of  human  experi- 
ence not  seen  from  that  hypothetcial  "hill.'* 

In  relation  thereto,  tlie  crucial  points  are:  true 
criminals  think  substantially  in  the  same  measures 
as  the  writer  writes ;  doing  it,  habituals  have  done 


LinJcs  in  the  Chain  of  Crime  117 

precisely  what  habituals  naturally  would  do  in  tlie 
circumstance,  which  is  to  say :  they  have  ground 
grist  bagged  to  their  liking  and  brought  to  their 
mill,  and  by  the  same  token,  they  have  moved  as  one 
to  refuse  millings  that  didn't  mate  with  their  ma- 
chinations. 

Not  a  whit  of  false  suggestion,  an  item  of  spurious 
method,  a  camouflaged  lie,  an  iota  of  bad  example, 
nor  a  denatured  piece  of  deviltry,  has  been  lost  upon 
any  but  the  least  intelligent  of  lawbreakers ;  and 
even  they  must  have  had  veiled  minds  indeed,  not 
to  have  understood. 

In  line  with  easy  buttering  of  bread  and  the  going 
pressure  for  banal  by-play  in  prison  life,  criminals 
and  ex-criminals  alike  have  outraged  truth  in  order 
to  discredit  men  who  had  wished  them  well,  and  had 
acted  the  part;  but  whether  in  the  role  of  the  dis- 
possessed or  dispossessing,  actual  criminals  have 
never  for  a  moment  stepped  out  of  cadence  with  the 
cardinal  motif,  which  has  been  to  bamboozle  the 
blinkered:  swallow-tail  criminologists  preferred,  be- 
cause they  are  the  easiest  to  gull. 

Some  have  been  gulled  because  a  comprehensive 
understanding  of  that  which  builds  to  given  crim- 
inals, and  then  to  their  progressively  serious  crimes, 
has  been  strangest  to  their  striving.  Others  have 
been  rendered  single-seeing  through  obsessional  use 
of  the  monocular  lens,  given  over  to  proof  of  the 
presupposition.     Still  others  must  have  hushed  con- 


118  Criminal  Types 

viction  in  order  to  meet  this  or  that  material  con- 
sideration. 

And  certain  of  active  workers  in  the  work  must 
have  ridden  as  jockeys  to  orders  under  false  colors, 
since  the  inescapable  exactions  of  reformative  en- 
deavor cannot  be  misread  by  any  tyro  who  will  take 
a  good  look. 

Hence  it  comes  about  that  the  crime  problem  works 
out  substantially  like  this :  multiply  the  congenital 
predisposition  of  the  average  criminal  to  commit 
crime,  by  the  sum  of  the  direct  and  indirect  bids 
made  for  him  to  do  so,  and  you  account  naturally 
for  the  present  carousal  of  crime  in  the  United 
States,  engineered,  in  the  main,  by  habitual 
criminals. 

Pounding  on  such  as  the  aftermath  of  the  World 
War  as  acute  cause  for  crime,  doesn't  begin  to  pick 
to  the  bone.  America  had  outfooted  the  civilized 
world  at  breeding  and  nursing  criminals,  long  before 
the  prospect  of  a  foreign  war  had  seeped  into  the 
national  consciousness. 

No  doubt,  certain  of  the  legions  of  ex-criminals 
who  sieved  into  the  national  forces,  here  and  abroad, 
for  that  war,  were  therefore  emboldened  to  take  up 
the  swing  around  the  criminal  circle  at  the  comple- 
tion of  that  service;  but  if  true,  that  were  a  mere 
flash  in  the  pan  as  compared  with  the  daily  grand 
total  of  crime  committed  in  continental  America. 

If  we  are  to  catch  up  with  crime  and  come  up 


Links  in  the  Chain  of  Crime  119 

with  the  criminal,  the  obscured  fact  is  the  fact  that 
needs  must  take  root  and  abide  in  American  minds. 
The  obscured  fact  is,  that  infinitely  more  than  the 
ideals  from  which  correctional  plants  are  operated, 
the  ideals  from  which  such  as  counting  houses  con- 
summate— affect  the  grand  ratios  of  crime. 

So  long  as  those  at  the  top  break  moral  law  to 
bits  and  remain  practically  immune  to  legal  pro- 
scriptions in  the  breaking,  so  long  will  crowded-out 
fellows  at  the  bottom  crack  jokes  over  little  things 
like  penal  codes. 

However  it  goes  with  the  rest  of  the  world, 
America  has  reached  the  stage  of  unfolding  whereof 
inequity  at  a  price  won't  work. 

Nothing  short  of  an  enlightened  national  con- 
science will  cut  much  of  a  swath  in  the  stand  of 
crime ;  a  conscience  that  holds  every  man  to  the  open 
mart,  there  to  deal  one-hundred  cents  to  the  dollar 
— give  or  take. 

Remedial  measures,  taken  as  against  the  going 
saturnalia  of  crime  the  country  over,  will  perforce 
center  on  prevention.  Remodelling  crime-soaked 
human  clay  won't  cure  the  case. 

First,  then,  purge  the  land  of  natural  criminals 
and  breeders  of  criminals:  this,  in  part,  through 
restrictive  immigration  laws  that  religiously  restrict ; 
in  part  by  searching  out  resident  agitators  against 
the  public  peace  and  security,  and  ticketing  them  for 
the  countries  whence  they  came;  and  in  part  by  con- 


120  Crvmmal  Types 

fining  home-brew  habituals  and  keeping  them  con- 
fined. 

Secondly,  begin  instruction  for  a  common  virtue 
where  children  take  on  bents  for  thinking  and  doing 
at  maturity ;  which  is  to  say :  at  the  hearths,  and  in 
the  public  schools  of  the  land. 

So  much  being  admitted,  it  follows,  with  unde- 
niable force,  that  the  first  logical  step  in  point  to 
be  taken  by  America,  should  be  reestablishment  of 
moral  instruction  in  the  public  schools. 

Thereof,  America  was  steered,  and  steers  for  tht 
rocks;  for,  "Just  as  the  twig  is  bent,  the  tree^s  in- 
clined." 


VII 


CHAMOIS-SKIN  CRIMINOLOGISTS 

Chamois-skin  is  softest  of  leather  made  of  the  skin 
of  the  chamois. 

The  chamois  abides  on  the  loftiest  ridges  of  the 
Alps  and  Pyrenees.  Roaming  those  mountains,  he 
employs  unusual  keenness  and  scope  of  vision,  and 
displays  singular  agility  in  leaping  from  crag  to 
crag,  on  which  he  lands  non-skidding  hoofs.  Other- 
wise, the  little  climber's  means  of  defense  are  negli- 
gible. While  fleet  of  foot,  he  is  at  the  mercy,  in 
their  domain,  of  long-toothed  hunters  endowed  with 
the  greater  cunning  and  stamina. 

Similes  miss  the  chamois-skin  criminologist  solely 
by  the  fact  of  criminological  stunts  he  essays,  but 
cannot  manage.  Undismayed  by  finite  limitations, 
he  dares  the  highest  peaks  of  vision,  from  which  he 
affects  to  train  all-seeing  eyes ;  springs  nimbly  from 
height  to  height  in  the  mists  of  theory ;  rates  them 
purblind  mortals  who  dwell  on  the  common  plane 
below ;  and  comes  croppers  in  attempt  to  prescribe 
for  fellow  unfortunates  who  must  needs  work  out 
life's  problems  close  to  the  practical  level. 

121 


122  Criminal  Types 

A  further  attribute  of  the  chamois-skin  is  its 
sponge-like  capacity  for  absorption.  It  has  a 
voracious  maw  for  either  oil  or  water,  and  does  its 
best  to  combine  them.  Here,  again,  the  parallel 
persists.  Be  the  idea-mixture  of  reform  never  so  im- 
possible, the  mind  of  the  chamois-skin  criminologist 
soaks  it  in,  while  he  waxes  cocksure  of  his  call  to 
euchre  nature  with  it  at  the  game  of  synthesis. 

Thereto  hangs  a  sometime  ludicrous,  sometime 
tragic  tale.  It  is  ludicrous,  out  of  idiosyncratic  con- 
ceptions of  being  and  doing  which  out-fantasy  fan- 
tasy ;  and  it  is  tragic,  when  the  barren  result  is  pre- 
dicted by  reactive  laws  that  can  neither  be  shunted 
nor  denied.  Moreover,  the  more  bizarre,  while  be- 
deviled, the  dream  stuff,  the  more  certain  is  the 
chamois-skin  criminologist  that  it  should  abide  an 
action  pattern  in  the  brains  of  the  crime-ridden. 

Tlie  idea  may  be  that  of  an  aesthete  who  is  beyond 
suspicion  of  motive  other  than  to  serve  his  kind,  yet 
be  charged  with  the  most  malignant  of  anti-social 
germs.  Take  a  case  based  cardinally  on  such  an 
idea:  as  at  present  pressed,  it  is  that  it  is  the  first 
duty  of  the  State  to  so  provide  for  the  carefree 
recreation  and  amusement  of  recidivistic  felons,  as 
to  win  their  unqualified  approval  of  that  provision. 
In  other  words,  the  correctional  salve  is  bad  medi- 
cine if  it  is  not  spread  to  the  instinctive  reactions 
of  many-times  convicted  felons. 

No  matter  what  their  natural  and  acquired  handi- 


Chamois-Skm  Criminologists  123 

caps ;  no  matter  if  they  elect  to  continue  to  "pick" 
a  living,  despite  their  fulsome  lip  service  for  men 
and  measures  through  which  they  calculate  to  ease 
the  going  to,  in,  and  from  prison ;  no  matter  that 
they  are  baldly  unskilled,  and  at  heart  unregenerate, 
as  evidenced  by  the  fact  of  their  collective  machina- 
tions to  place  the  emphasis  on  the  kind  of  prison 
activities  that  helped  clamp  them  to  crooked  masts 
in  free  life.  No  matter,  in  short,  what  their  indus- 
trial and  social  delinquencies,  criminals  must  be  fed 
up  with  a  plethora  of  baseball,  moving-pictures, 
bone-rattling,  play-acting  and  prison  banquets 
whereat  "lifers"  hurl  anathema  at  hounds  of  the 
law,  who  had  the  unthinkable  temerity  to  "pinch" 
them,  caught  at  riding  rough-shod  over  sun-lit  thor- 
oughfares. 

The  ominous  narrative  particularizes  the  "buzz- 
wagon"  packed  with  gun-hung  thugs  to  whom  ruth- 
less murder  is  a  mere  incident  of  the  chase.  "On 
your  way !"  shouts  a  rider,  or  riders,  as  the  speed 
clutch  is  thrown  in,  and  the  good  God  fend  for  those 
who  would  stop  them. 

"Go  after  them !  Get  them !  Give  them  the  full 
length  of  the  law !"  Surely !  Any  genuine,  game 
man  sworn  to  do  it  feels  the  call  to  do  no  less.  But 
would  you,  in  the  face  of  probable  death  and  the 
facts  that  the  chances  are  about  three  to  one  against 
your  murderer  being  brought  to  trial,  ten  to  one 
against  his  sentence  by  the  book,  and  eighty  to  one 


124  Criminal  Types 

that  he  will  not  suffer  the  death  penalty?  Essen- 
tially would  you,  if  you  pictured  him  in  prison  carry- 
ing off  the  role  of  one  under  undue  duress,  backed 
by  would-be  bellwethers  of  reform,  who  play  up  to 
his  depraved  instincts,  and  down  to  the  security  of 
the  commonwealth? 

Certainly  an  agent  of  the  law  should  execute  the 
law,  even  unto  the  end,  else  yield  his  shield.  Still, 
guardians  of  the  peace  are  not  supermen,  but  just 
humans,  swa^^ed  with  the  great  bulk  of  their  brothers 
by  impulse  to  protect  those  dear  to  and  dependent 
upon  them. 

However,  the  grand  majority  of  peace  officers 
would  consummate  under  their  oaths  if  society 
wouldn't  maintain  odds,  all  along  the  line  so  close  to 
prohibitive  in  favor  of  the  murderous  parasite.  So 
long  as  that  is  done,  both  in  and  out  of  prison,  so  long 
will  those  in  the  first  line  of  public  defense  fight  shy  of 
the  final  alternative;  and  so  long  will  the  ratio  of 
apprehended  murderers  go  down,  instead  of  up. 

And  why  not,  when  you  cut  to  the  heart  of  it? 
Why  expect  a  man  to  leave  the  wife  to  grub  for  good 
kiddies,  to  the  end  that  pseudo-reformers  may  chase 
chimeras  in  the  clouds,  while  they  speed  by — choice 
criminals  for  the  abyss  ? 

Yet  it  is  done,  though  in  the  doing  potential  vic- 
tims know  that  one  of  the  chosen  lays  of  the  cham- 
ois-skin charlatan  is  to  imbue  crass  criminals  with 
contempt  for  the  badge  of  authority;  indeed,  with 


Chamois-Skm  Criminologists  125 

contempt  for  any  visible  sign  that  is  not  shaped  to 
the  frayed  garments  of  liis  mind,  pendant-hung  with 
non-reformative  piffle. 

The  average  habitual  would  earn  the  "moron's" 
tag  so  flippantly  attached  to  him,  did  he  not  vocifer- 
ate for  those  who  read  the  reform  cards  as  he  would 
have  them  read.  With  everything  to  gain  thereby  he 
plans  to  gain,  and  with  naught  to  lose  save  that 
which  he  spurns,  he  would  be  a  near  dunce  indeed, 
should  he  cross  the  bids  of  him  who  abets  his  oblique 
selections. 

Make  actual  soundings  for  motives,  and  it  is 
clearly  understandable  Avhy  self-detennining  crim- 
inals would  putter  and  play  ball  in  prison,  while  re- 
fusing enhanced  knowledge  and  skill.  In  very  fact, 
ulterior  designs  are  inevitably  adumbrated  in  con- 
stantly lowering  industrial  and  associated  averages. 

Because  Lhe  kind  of  getting  along  in  question  in- 
volves fateful  compromise  with  a  certain  class  of 
felons,  it  is  that  they  always  constitute  the  nucleus 
of  crime  in  America.  Hence  it  is,  too,  that  just 
those  prisons  whose  press  agents  push  it  along  in 
print  as  to  how  miraculously  they  "get  along"  with 
their  charges,  are  just  the  prisons  wherein  "indus- 
trial and  associated  averages'*  are  lowest  of  the 
low. 

How  could  it  be  otherwise  when  the  primal  duty 
of  a  correctional  plant  is  to  fix  it  firmly  in  minds 
trained  on  the  counterview,  that  the  individual  must 


126  Criminal  Types 

shift  to  "get  along"  with  the  State,  or  be  brushed 
aside.  The  immediate  mandate  is  doubly  binding  at 
a  time  when  the  hand  of  Anarch  rests  heavily  on  the 
peoples  of  earth,  albeit  that  is  but  a  passing  phase 
of  mob  hysteria,  for  which  natural  laws  must  effect 
a  cure,  if  man  does  not. 

With  prison  methods  it  is  essentially  different. 
Thereof  it  is  most  unfortunately  within  the  power  of 
the  miscalled  and  misguided  to  put  the  prison  finish 
on  the  predal  felon,  and  thus  penalize  him  so  plainly 
as  to  leave  him  barely  a  fighting  chance  for  social 
reinstatement. 

The  average  employer  cares  not  a  rouble  about 
propaganda  paraded  in  the  limelight  by  chamois- 
skin  criminologists,  other  than  that  mental  gyra- 
tions have  naught  to  do  with  the  hand-tool  and  other 
processes  of  training  that  are  at  once  broadly  educa- 
tive. He  does  and  must,  first  of  all,  protect  his  trial 
balance.  Mostly  he  "has  a  heart,"  also  he  has  to 
watch  out  for  the  leaks ;  and  so  the  bars  of  his  mind 
shut  out  the  unskilled,  crime-tainted  roustabout  who 
is  probably  an  instinctive  agitator  for  an  unfair 
day's  work  and  pay.  Therefore  the  pitiable  plight 
of  many  would  be — decent  ex-convicts  on  parole  who 
go  bang  up  against  the  bars. 

The  practical  deadlock,  established  as  between  the 
deserving  few  and  the  self-protecting  many,  is  prim- 
arily the  fault  neither  of  the  employer  who  has  been 
the  victim  of  so  much  of  basest  ingratitude,  nor  of 


Chamois-Skin  Criminologists  127 

the  well-intentioned  ex-convict  Avho  is  faced  about 
until  he  throws  up  his  hands  in  disgust  and  has 
recourse,  once  again,  to  the  caveman's  working 
tools. 

Perhaps  prisoners  sliould  probe  to  the  fallacy  of 
lauding  mock  schemes  of  reformation;  but  that's 
beside  the  mark  of  initial  responsibility  for  those 
schemes,  which  rests  with  the  architects  of  them. 
Again,  an  imprisoned  felon  who  has  determined  to 
"pull  straight"  following  his  discharge,  may  be 
shriven  of  serious  blame  for  either  active  or  passive 
participation  in  procedure  which  furthers  his  early 
parole.  To  falsely  tempt  a  prisoner  with  freedom 
is  not  a  fair  shake,  even  though  he  knows  it  to  be 
unearned  freedom,  and  that,  being  nearly  unequipped, 
he  cannot  hope  to  meet  the  exactions  of  the  free- 
life  working  day.  Whereas  for  those  who  bait 
prison  hooks  with  industrial  dynamite,  there  is  no 
defense. 

The  fuse  is  set  as  soon  as  our  man  plants  his 
feet  on  free  soil.  He  is  suspect  fundamentally  for 
the  reason  that  the  prison  regime  that  turned  him 
out  is  suspect.  Hard-headed  men  are  not  to  be  bam- 
boozled into  belief  in  reform  by  near  approach  to 
"sweet  doing  nothing."  They  know  that  if  they 
had  to  build  up  their  characters  and  bank  credits 
while  negotiating  tough  going  and  enduring  under 
hard  knocks,  the  character  and  aims  of  an  instinc- 
tively non-social  drone  are  not  to  be  chanj^ed  ever 


128  Criminal  Types 

by  his  lame  dashes  of  prison  endeavor,  plus  a  few 
pats  on  his  back. 

The  crash  comes  when  the  ex-convict  tries  to  mar- 
ket a  modicum  of  cheap  skill  taken  on  in  prison. 
Aside  from  the  fact  that  crime-free  journeymen 
mechanics  work  grudgingly  with  the  crime-branded, 
he  has  nothing  commanding  to  offer  when  and  where 
processes  of  elimination  follow  natural  grooves. 
Therefore  he  is  turned  down  again  and  again  until 
he  turns  up  incorrigibly  embittered  before  a  commit- 
ting magistrate,  with  his  heart  drawn  to  contempt 
for  prison-acquired  counterfeit  of  skill  that  brought 
him  no  better  than  gibes  and  refusals. 

Thinking  on  it  how  criminological  punters  helped 
chart  his  criminal  course  doesn't  salve  the  social 
wounds  of  the  crowded-out  derelict,  nor  does  it  ease 
his  chronic  grouch  against  the  social  structure;  it 
doesn't,  primarily,  because  he  is  quite  surely  a  self- 
centered  egoist  who  holds  himself  cheated  by 
gentlemen  who  schooled  him  after  his  own  belief 
to  the  effect  that  the  world  owes  him  "easy 
pickin'." 

Wlien  the  "pickin'  "  reduces  to  the  likes  of  the 
pick,  our  man  stands  at  the  parting  of  the  ways 
with  his  jaws  set.  Being  what  he  is  placed  as  he 
is,  and  thinking  as  he  thinks,  he  naturally  envisages 
such  as  the  burglar's  outfit  as  means  by  which  he 
can  "square"  himself.  As  he  senses  it,  society  has 
held  him  up  ruthlessly.    All  right,  then,  "hands  up" 


Chamois-Skin  Criminologists  129 

it  is;  and  be  quick  about  it,  or  brave  the  bark  of 
his  automatic. 

There  he  is,  the  usual  sum  of  him,  as  born,  raised, 
environed  and  institutionalized. 

Wliat's  to  be  done  about  it?  Since  society  has 
had  a  hand  in  the  unmaking  of  him  at  every  step  of 
his  career  from  his  first  conscious  thought,  what  has 
society  to  propose  that  will  undo,  at  least  in  part, 
the  harm  done  to  him.  "Wliat,"  the  criminological 
tyro  would  ask,  "is  the  remedy"? 

Well,  there  isn't  any,  one,  remedy.  There  is  not 
through  finite  means  on  earth.  He  now  presents 
the  complex  of  complexes:  a  soured,  instinctively 
degenerate,  desperate  man,  who  educes  that  he  has 
been  "double-crossed"  by  society  all  of  the  way,  and 
who  smarts  under  the  sting  of  social  anathema;  for 
he,  too,  "has  a  heart,"  though  it  may  be  hidden  from 
the  common  view  under  crooked  curves.  Above  all, 
he  wants  no  more  of  tossed  donatives  with  their  false 
promise  of  the  bon-bons  of  life,  to  be  snatched  out 
of  the  air.  He  further  indulges  self  pity  with  the 
belief  that  society  aims  to  keep  him  outlawed.  There- 
fore he  elects  to  let  it  go  at  that — and  the  quicker 
trigger  finger. 

Whereas  common-sense  correctional  measures  ap- 
plied in  time  and  prosecuted  along  educational  lines, 
might  well  have  pointed  him  for  honest  money,  he 
must  now  be  met  with  the  mailed  fist.  First  off, 
there  is  nothing  for  it  but  to  oppose  the  cumulative 


130  Criminal  Types 

force  of  the  commonwealth  to  the  vintage  a  hyena- 
ized  anti-social  unit  would  brew.  Going  about  it, 
the  first  necessary  step  is  to  set  the  brakes  down  hard 
on  spurious  guardians  of  the  peace,  cold-shut  poli- 
ticians, and  pseudo-penologists  who  use  him  to  line 
their  purses.     Then  follow  up  substantially  like  this : 

(1)  Make  the  commitment  fit  him.  Commit  him 
to  the  penal  institution  that  squares  with  his  classi- 
fication as  a  criminal.  Bar  him,  essentially,  from 
Simon-pure  reformatories,  manned  and  equipped  to 
serve  first-offending  felons.  That  involves  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  centralized  clearing  bureau  of  anthro- 
pometry to  which  any  magistrate  in  the  United 
States  could  refer  for  information  as  to  the  back- 
ward trail  of  a  convicted  felon  before  him  for  sen- 
tence. Lack  of  such  a  bureau  constitutes  the  weak- 
est link  in  the  chain  of  American  jurisprudence. 

(2)  If  he  is  other  than  an  "habitual,"  so  sen- 
tenced, and  having  committed  him  to  a  prison  of  last 
resort,  where  he  belongs,  hold  him  there  until  he 
shall  have  given  fairly-presumptive  evidence  of  his 
determination  to  make  an  honest  living.  To  such 
an  end,  his  sentence  must  needs  be  strictly  indeter- 
minate, and  his  parole  contingent  upon  the  manner 
in  which  he  reacts  to  fundamental  reformative  pro- 
cesses. Particularly,  his  trade  markings  will  tell 
reliably  as  to  whether  or  not  he  is  set  for  social 
rehabilitation.  If  those  markings  persist  at  the  in- 
different  point    of    percentage,    he    is    intrinsically 


Chamois-Skin  Criminologists  131 

"faking" ;  he  is  faking,  in  spite  of  his  insistence  upon 
the  uniquely  benign  influence  of  sporting  activities 
and  associated  imagery  and  amusement  by  which 
he  has  been  and  is  being  cheated. 

In  such  instance,  he  must  be  brought  up  with  a 
round  turn  for  very  much  higher  averages.  Palp- 
ably, too,  those  who  school  him  to  spurn  basic  results 
while  they  preen  his  sporting  feathers,  should  be 
searched  out  and  set  down ;  for,  taken  by  and  large, 
the  sporting  instinct  run  amuck  is  the  capital  curse 
that  stalks  the  average  criminal  rounder.  More 
than  that,  the  illegal  acts  of  the  occasional,  circum- 
stantial felon,  who  is  not  criminal  at  heart,  nearly 
always  trace  to  an  acquired  habit  of  mind  that  chains 
him  to  one  or  several  of  the  poisonous  by-products 
of  pure  sport. 

(3)  In  attempt  to  steer  him  aright,  stick  to  him 
with  something  like  the  patience  the  Saviour  would 
have  stuck  to  him  in  like  circumstance.  Do  for  him 
every  sane,  practicable  thing,  and  do  to  him  noth- 
ing that  smacks  of  ignoble  revenge. 

On  the  other  hand,  have  done  with  maudlin  make- 
shifts for  just  social  reprisal.  No  State  that  balks 
at  visiting  condign  discipline  on  habitual  law- 
breakers, can  endure  well-ordered.  The  moment  a 
man  holds  himself  above  the  general  law,  that  mo- 
ment he  aligns  against  human  progress.  Therefore 
make  him  not  the  semblance  of  apology  for  meeting 
cardinal  crime  Avith  cardinal  punishment.    Moreover, 


132  Crrniinal  Types 

plainly  term  it  punishment,  advisedly  devised  to 
bring  it  home  to  the  predatory  brute  that  "comin' 
a  shootin'  "  for  another's  belongings  does  not  earn 
him  "sleepin'  time"  in  a  prison  wherein  he  can  in- 
dulge sporting  pedilections  for  him  accursed;  and 
wherein  there  is  "No  (actually  reformative)  work, 
plenty  of  eats,  and  a  bum  argument  every  minute.'* 

Save  for  our  addition  in  parenthesis,  the  above- 
quoted  phrase  is  that  of  a  many-offense  criminal  who 
picked  and  chose  while  confined  in  what  he  enthu- 
siastically called  "some  joint,"  and  what  the  cult 
chamois-skin  refer  to  as  a  model,  "get  along"  refor- 
matory for  advanced  felons. 

The  message  was  mailed  to  a  "pal,"  who,  with 
the  penman,  w^as  convicted  of  knocking  down  a 
drunken  sailor  with  a  slung-shot,  beating  him  into 
insensibility,  and  stripping  him  of  his  money  and 
valuables  "in  front  of  No.  9  Bowery,"  New  York 
City. 

The  words  of  the  message  mix  to  a  perfect  broth. 
They  adumbrate  institutional  farce  made  of  the  man- 
datory predicates  of  penal  law,  through  marking 
time  to  the  mental  meanderings  of  chamois-skin  crim- 
inologists. 

(4)  So  order  prison  regimes  that  they  shall  serve 
the  commonwealth,  and  should  serve  the  prisoner; 
serve  the  commonwealth  by  enforcing  penal  codes 
written  primarily  to  prevent  crime,  but  which  such 
as  the  murderous  recidivist  make  it  necessary  to  make 


Chamois-Skin  Criminologists  133 

repressive  for  the  protection  of  society;  and  serve 
the  prisoner  through  affording  him  every  sane  chance 
to  forge  ahead  and  face  life  squarely. 

In  the  process,  heaping  reprisal  should  be  relig- 
iously refused  as  less  defensible  than  the  reverse. 
Petty  penalties  that  issue  against  perfectly  natural 
while  harmless  expressions,  are  essentially  baneful. 

To  begin  with,  we  have  to  unset  anti-social  jaws. 
We  may  be  able  to  do  that  big  thing  if  we  go  about 
it  like  manly  men,  realizing  that  everything  in  life 
is  relative;  and  that  a  fellow  may  have  tricked  him- 
self into  crime,  yet  be  far  from  a  by-choice  crim- 
inal. Positively,  we  shall  not  do  so  with  a  "billy" 
and  billingsgate.  Neither  can  we  coddle  and  pad  a 
man  to  reformation.  That  will  ensue  upon  nothing 
less  than  his  changed  habit  of  thought  and  action; 
and  that  will  usually  initiate,  if  at  all,  out  of  ac- 
quired knowledge  and  skill,  from  which  to  build  or 
rebuild  self-respect. 

(5)  Man  correctional  institutions  throughout 
with  men  whose  characters  are  unassailable,  who 
example  and  suggest  only  that  which  is  above  re- 
proach, who  are  naturally  fitted  to  discourage  the 
offense  without  discouraging  the  offender,  and  who 
instinctively  dive  deeply  for  compassion;  but,  who 
cannot  be  "faked"  readily  by  criminal  cunning,  nor 
brought  to  a  compromise  with  it. 

Between  such  men  and  flippant  *'good-mixers" 
who  set  sail  for  untroubled  waters  and  the  lump  sum ; 


134  Criminal  Types 

also  between  such  men  and  "soulless  politicians  who 
gamble  with  dice  loaded  with  human  hearts,"  drive 
wedges  that  triflers  and  stricksters  cannot  loosen. 

(6)  It  will  repay  the  States,  handsomely,  to  es- 
tablish criminological  schools  basically  equipped  for 
practical  instruction,  backed  by  elementary  courses 
in  anthropology  and  mental  therapeutics.  The  chiefs 
of  staffs  of  such  schools  should  be  men  well  ad- 
vanced in  years,  and  of  proven  worth  which  compre- 
hends the  practice  and  theory  of  a  work  great  and 
grave  as  any  to  which  man  lends  hand  and  brain. 
They  should  be  "well  advanced  in  years,"  because 
one  must  have  dealt  first  hand  in  their  midst  for  the 
better  part  of  a  life  time  with  true  criminals  ere  he 
shall  have  dug  to  their  ulterior  designs  and  vis- 
ioned  their  more  refined  crooks  and  curves. 

Choice  of  chiefs  of  staffs  should  bear  but  inci- 
dental relation  to  diplomas — medical  or  other.  While 
ability  to  prescribe  for  a  prisoner  physically,  or  to 
probe  him  psychologically,  is  a  valuable  asset,  it 
does  not,  by  any  manner  of  means,  postulate  the 
stature  of  an  all-purpose  criminologist. 

For  example:  a  graduated  general  practicioner 
and  psychic  expert  holds  two  blocks  of  the  reform 
pyramid;  yet  only  two,  neither  of  which  is  the  key- 
block.  That  does  not  reside  in  ability  to  tell  off 
the  bones  of  the  human  frame,  nor  to  trace  to  sub- 
conscious impulsion ;  but  in  capacity  to  fit  all  the 
blocks    of   a    delicately-poised    structure    and    make 


Chamois-Skin  Criminologists  135 

them  function  in  liarmony,  close  to  the  maximum  of 
efficiency,  for  a  common  purpose.  Thereof,  weight 
of  influence  must  be  carefully  weighed,  confounding 
of  magnitudes  avoided,  and  contact  of  extremes  re- 
ligiously discouraged. 

Beyond  all  of  that,  the  right  man  in  place  must 
be  a  consummate  organizer  who  is  able  to  trace  to 
motive,  draw  derailed  men  unto  him,  minimize  fric- 
tion whatsoever,  and  plan  and  promote  sound  train- 
ing and  government ;  yet  stand,  as  did  the  Christ,  as 
adamant  to  him  who  would  exploit  evil  intent  out  of 
an  evil  heart. 

He  who  can  fill  that  bulking  order  must  be  big- 
ger, broader  and  deeper  than  the  physical  and  men- 
tal technicist — be  he  never  so  clever. 

The  paragraphs  immediately  preceding  are 
stressed  because  the  present  pull  and  pressure  is  for 
psychiatrists  as  heads  of  correctional  plants.  On 
its  face,  that  is  short-sighted  single-seeing,  since 
such  men  cannot  bring  breadth  of  understanding  of  a 
great-big,  complex,  interlocking  machine,  the  parts 
of  which  must  be  kept  nicely  balanced.  Moreover, 
your  master-criminologist  is  first  of  all  master-man 
in  the  sense  that  he  can  and  does  get  down  into,  and 
abide  in,  the  hearts  of  unfortunates  who  make  for 
hell's  toboggan. 

In  any  case,  the  work  should  not  wait  upon  ex- 
perimentation to  necessary  experience,  the  which  is 
born  only  of  extended  contact  with  imprisoned  felons. 


136  Criminal  Types 

What  prison  reform  cries  out  for  is  correctional 
heads  who  can  build  and  maintain  a  regime  that  will 
inspire  their  charges  to  do  things,  and  to  want  to 
do  them.  Building,  specializing  should  be  left  to 
staff  specialists ;  general  management  to  general 
efficiency  that  compasses  the  full,  practical  reforma- 
tive field.  Such  heads  had,  of  course,  made  it  a 
part  of  their  business  to  be  able  to  box,  at  the  least, 
the  specific  theoretical  compass. 

Heads  of  departments  of  the  schools  in  question 
should  have  had  not  less  than  two  years  of  experi- 
ence somewhere  on  the  firing  line  of  reform;  if  more 
than   that,   all  the  better. 

The  course  for  students  should  be  an  intensive 
one — say  six  months — calculated  to  file  off  the 
rough  edges  of  the  tyro,  and  to  classify  him.  As  it 
is  now,  beginners  who  set  in  the  game  of  penology 
must  pass  through  the  shuttle-cock  period  of  appren- 
ticeship, during  which  the  criminal  crew  ply  the  bat- 
tledoor,  and  disciplinary  officers  are  besieged  with 
banal  offenses  that  are  catching. 

Having  passed  relatively  simple  final  examina- 
tions, graduated  students  should  bear  with  them 
written  attests  of  that  fact.  The  personal  equation 
should  count  appreciably  at  such  examinations. 
Either  palpable  or  demonstrated  unfitness  should 
bar  an  applicant  from  reform  work. 

The  State  could  well  afford  to  balance  tuition 
and  maintenance  against  the  time  spent  by  its  pupils 


Chamois-Skin  Criminologists  137 

at    elementary    preparation    for    fundamental    en- 
deavor in  its  service. 

(6)  Establish  Houses  of  Reception  for  first-of- 
fending and  circumstantial  felons  awaiting  trial  and 
transfer,  and  officer  those  houses,  in  so  far  as  may 
be  as  to  subordinate  positions,  with  graduates  of 
criminological  schools.  The  houses  should  be 
orderly,  S3fstematic,  sanitary  houses,  given  over  to 
practicable  work,  body-building  exercises,  the  sin- 
gle room  system,  classification  of  inmates  by  room- 
blocks  as  well  as  at  recreation  by  character,  and  to 
all  around  discipline  sufficiently  strict  to  impress 
budding  lawbreakers  at  once  with  the  fact  that  the 
cost  of  lawbreaking  mounts  to  practical  confisca- 
tion. 

Thusly  we  should  hold  off  the  habitual  from  the 
occasional  offender,  and  afford  near  neophytes  the 
chance  to  brush  elbows  with,  and  study  criminals 
in,  the  making. 

Thereafter,  prospective  officers  in  the  making 
should  be  advanced  to  such  correctional  institutions 
as  the  quality  of  them,  and  their  attainment  under 
preliminary  instruction  and  experience,  would  war- 
rant. And  thusly  we  should  have  prisons  of  last 
resort  manned,  as  they  should  be,  with  serious- 
minded  officers  equipped  to  serve  the  State  by  serv- 
ing   obliquely-thinking   underdogs. 

(7)  Create  the  office  of  Inspector-General  of  State 
Correctional   Institutions.      Make   the  position   ap- 


138  Criminal  Types 

pointive  by  the  Governor,  and  the  incumbent  of  it 
an  ex-officio  advisory  member  of  boards  and  commis- 
sions that  are  classed  under  penal  and  correctional 
heads. 

The  appointment  should  be  strictly  non-partisan, 
and  the  appointee  one  who  had  forged  his  way  up 
from  the  ground  in  the  work,  won  deserved  distinc- 
tion doing  it,  and  who  therefore  could  not  be  tricked 
by  high-sounding  vagaries,  surface  practicability, 
or  subterranean  machinations. 

Among  other  things,  such  a  man  would  search  out 
conflicting  activities ;  comparative  inactivities ;  un- 
balance of  parts ;  overlapping  positions ;  overem- 
phasized and  undercmphasized  discipline;  too  much 
of  horse-play  irrationally  prescribed;  not  enough  of 
recreation  to  a  rational  end ;  false  classification  of 
inmates  in  falsely-appointed  apartments ;  defective 
hygiene  and  sanitation ;  waste  of  potential  and  of 
material  whatsoever,  inclusive  of  food  and  its  values ; 
and  the  criminological  "faker"  who  shifts  to  line 
his  purse  and  to  partake  of  a  cheap  notoriety, 
while  he  blinds  the  public  eye  with  impish  plati- 
tudes. 

The  Inspector  General  would,  of  course,  act  as 
first  criminological  aid  to  the  Governor,  by  whom  he 
would  be  guided  practically.  He  should  be  a  help, 
not  a  hindrance  to  the  said  boards  and  commissions, 
and  should  sit  with  them,  on  request,  in  advisory 
capacity   when    reasonably   possible.      Also,   specific 


Chamois-Skin  Criminologists  159 

copies  of  other  than  his  confidential  reports  to  the 
Governor  should  be  submitted  to  the  said  commis- 
sions and  boards.  In  fact,  one  of  the  cardinal  rea- 
sons for  his  being  and  doing  as  a  State  agent  would 
be  his  duty  to  promote  harmonious,  while  synthetic 
effort  to  the  best  ends.  His  salary  should  include 
a  competent  secretary,  and  a  stenographer,  both 
of  his  own  choosing.  His  time  should  be  practically 
his  own  to  use  to  the  broadest  purpose. 

Then  require  of  local  correctional  heads  that  they 
shall  work  loyally  with  their  supreme,  active  chief, 
whether  or  no  he  rates  values  exactly  as  they  rate 
them.  He  would  be  out  to  help  make  the  best  use 
of  all  reformative  tools  and  to  coordinate  them.  If 
he  is  big  enough  to  do  that,  he  is  big  enough  to  re- 
ceive most  respectful  attention  and  support.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  an  appreciable  part  of  his  worth  to 
the  State  would  be  his  ability  to  spot  idiosyncrasies, 
and  to  evaluate  single-track  ideas,  issuing  out  of 
narrow-gauge  brains. 

'  When  many  simple,  obvious,  highly  serviceable 
things  still  undone,  shall  have  been  done  for  the 
crime-cheated,  will  be  time  enough  to  engage  with 
half-blown  theories. 

In  the  meantime,  psychoanalysis  should  be  veri- 
fied indubitably  as  squaring  closely  with  the  claims 
of  its  sponsors,  then  be  applied  sequentially  in  the 
work,  or  wait  upon  practical  and  more  important 
exactions.    Also,  psychoanalysists  shall  have  purged 


140  Criminal  Types 

their  phrasing  of  such  as  "unconscious  intent"  be- 
fore it  will  carry  to  conviction  in  full. 

In  the  final  analysis,  rational  refonn  endeavor 
reduces  to  the  common  terms  and  tread  of  a  work-a- 
day  world. 

But  kernels  of  criminological  thought  can  be  con- 
tained in  a  thin  volume.  A  bulking  book  could  be 
written  alone  on  when  and  why  prison  discipline  takes 
on  a  cutting  edge,  and  when  and  why  it  sheds  virtue 
and  veers  to  worse  than  useless  restraint  or  restric- 
tion. 

It  will  be  well  if  this  chapter  serves  to  warn  espe- 
cially against  the  Wallingford  of  reform  because: 
he  is  either  a  fetich-struck  visionary,  or  an  ego- 
centric cheat. 


vm 


"EXCESS  PROPHETS" 

We  are  beridden  by  excess  prophets. 

Washington  Star. 

Nature  builds  some  men  bigger  than  any  office  or 
title.  Theodore  Roosevelt  was  such  a  man,  whose 
wont  it  was  to  coin  cutting  saws  such  as,  "The 
shots  that  hit  are  the  shots  that  count." 

Taken  for  what  it  was  meant  to  conve}^,  that  epi- 
gram needs  no  champion;  yet  the  implied  negative 
of  it  may  or  may  not  hold  water.  That  will  depend 
upon  the  ratio  of  hits  to  misses. 

Missed  shots  prolong  conflict,  multiply  fatalties, 
and  pile  up  huge  waste  of  the  materials  of  war. 
Hence,  largely,  the  staggering  toll  taken  by  the 
World  War  in  priceless  young  manhood,  and  of  the 
going  resources  of  the  nations  engaged. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  a  fighting  force  must 
be  an  expert  force  in  the  care  and  use  of  the  tools 
it  employs ;  but  that  is  of  the  primary  exactions. 
The  master  key  to  victory,  alike  in  business  and 
battle,    is    moulded    of    leadership ;    leadership    that 

141 


142  Criminal  Types 

envisages  the  tactical  macliine  made  up  of  units  of 
balanced  efficiency. 

Tlie  American  military  system  essentially  does  and 
must  presuppose  the  squad  leader  to  be  as  efficient 
in  his  domain,  as  is  the  commanding  general  in  his. 
Indeed,  an  American  army  made  up  of  prime  pri- 
vates, and  the  more  petty  leaders,  might  pound 
through,  in  a  pinch,  even  though  faultily  disposed 
betimes  by  the  bestarred  and  besilvered ;  whereas, 
under  the  reverse  circumstance,  it  would  almost  cer- 
tainly suffer  defeat  at  the  hands  of  an  evenly- 
schooled  foe. 

But  a  properly  trained,  led,  and  served  army 
would  not  necessarily  close  a  given  case.  Assume 
such  an  army  at  points  on  the  field  with  an  inferior 
enemy,  and  the  hazard  might  still  be  settled  by 
swivel-chair  soldiers,  as  it  very  nearly  was  in  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion ;  also  very  nearly  was  by 
round-table  strategists  who  insisted  that  P'och  should 
keep  his  general  reserves  massed  where  he  knew  he 
could  not  use  them  to  advantage,  as  he  had  plannd, 
to  pummel  the  German  divisions,  piled  up  in  a  close 
pocket,  where  they  were  glaringly  open  to  raking 
flank  fire. 

Fortunately,  that  issue  was  settled  by  the  pur- 
blind German  General  Staff,  which  was  so  obsessed 
by  the  idea  of  the  spectacular  capture  of  Paris,  that 
it  could  not  see  Amiens ;  Amiens,  seen  at  the  time 
by  all  of  the  Allied  leaders  as  plainly  the  objective 


*'Excess  Prophets''  143 

of  the  German  grand  plan  of  attack.  Whether  or 
no  Hindenburg  now  lashes  himself  thereof  in  order 
to  spare  his  former  imperial  masters,  false  leader- 
ship defeated  Germany ;  and  it  came  right  close  to 
spoiling  the  battle  broth  for  the  Allies. 

So  much  of  seeming  diversion  is  employed  to  set 
off  the  fact  that  social  and  prison  progress  has 
been  held  up  in  America,  particularly  during  the 
last  three  decades,  by  "false  leadership." 

For  example,  consider  this  master  stroke,  framed 
hy  a  much-quoted  minister  of  the  gospel:  "Possibly 
something  is  to  be  granted  to  punishment  as  a  deter- 
rent. No  doubt  some  people  are  to  some  extent 
restrained  from  wrong  doing  by  fear  of  punishment.'* 

The  person  who  penned  those  lines — underscor- 
ing of  which  is  ours — knew  that  had  religious  creeds 
relied  solely  for  their  carrying  power  on  strictly 
voluntary  service  for  God  from  the  heart  of  man, 
they  had  limped  to  an  early  demise. 

Had  the  writer  marked  it  that  not  even  "fear  of 
punishment"  condign  by  the  Almighty  "restrains" 
by-choice  criminals  from  "wrong  doing,"  he  would 
have  made  the  best  case  possible  against  punishment 
as  a  "deterrent" ;  yet  only  the  best  case  possible, 
since  the  efficiency  of  deterrence  is  to  be  judged  b}"^ 
its  effect  upon  the  noraial  mass,  and  not  upon  the 
abnormal  few. 

In  such  instance,  the  qualifying  word  points  the 
difference    as    between    the    mere   "tough"    brawler. 


144  Crvmmal  Types 

"restrained"  from  going  the  limit,  and  tlie  ruthless 
blood-spillcr  whom  fear  of  punishment  eternal  does 
not  feaze.  Monstrosities  occur  in  all  forms  of  ani- 
mal life.  When  the  monstrous  human  strikes,  he 
must  be  struck  accordingly. 

Moreover,  before  we  reach  final  conclusions,  we 
must  know  the  order  and  ordering  of  our  deterrence; 
must  know  it  up  through  the  gamut  of  the  apprehen- 
sion, the  conviction,  and  the  sentence  of  lawbreakers, 
and  then  through  the  gamut  of  their  prison  activi- 
ties. 

False  procedure  as  to  any  one  of  the  four  pro- 
cesses named  will  invalidate  any  general  statement 
of  negation  concerning  the  efficience  of  punishment 
for  crime.  Procedure  in  America  has  been  false  in 
every  named  particular.  Therefore,  the  actual  ef- 
fect of  just  and  necessary  legal  punishment  for 
crime  cannot  have  been  declared. 

Much  of  crude  guesswork  has  been  exploited  by 
single-seeing  f etichists  of  one  or  another  kidney ; 
but  cardinal  facts  have  remained  hidden  from  such, 
for  the  very  good  reason  that  to  uncover  those  facts 
requires  hard  digging  strangest  to  their  striving. 

When  we  shall  have  caught  our  thieves  as  surely 
as  Canada  catches  hers ;  then  fitted  the  punishment 
to  the  offense;  then  fitted  the  institution  to  the 
offender,  and  the  offender  to  the  institution,  will  be 
time  enough  to  place  stricture  on  punishment  values. 

At  a  time  when,  and  in  a  country  where,  the  mur- 


"Excess  Prophets''^  145 

derous  footpad  knows  the  chances  are  three  to  one 
against  his  being  brought  to  trial ;  ten  to  one 
against  his  sentence  to  Hfe  imprisonment;  eighty  to 
one  that  he  will  not  suffer  the  death  penalty ;  and 
that  the  all-around  odds  are  nearly  prohibitive  as 
against  the  practical  application,  both  in  and  out  of 
prison,  of  the  least  elastic  predicates  of  penal  codes : 
it  is  sheer  gratuitous  dilettantism  to  allege  that  pun- 
ishment of  crime  in  America  doesn't  punish. 

How  can  legal  punishment  punish,  if  only  about 
five  shots  in  the  hundred  of  it  hit  so  as  to  hurt? 

Here,  again,  "The  shots  that  (miss)  are  the  shots 
that  count" ;  and  that  would  still  be  true  if  crim- 
inals were  favored  only  by  so  much  as  the  gambler's 
throw;  in  fact,  they  would  continue  to  jump  at  an 
even  chance  to  outmaneuver  agents  of  the  law.  Why 
not? 

Exhibit  No.  2,  offered  by  a  highly-paid  corre- 
spondent of  a  Chicago  newspaper,  is  fully  as  in- 
forming as  are  our  "minister's"  conclusions: 
"There  never  was  a  time  when  theft  was  considered 
proper." 

From  323  to  354  b.c,  Spartan  youth  were  most 
carefully  schooled  by  State  agents  in  promiscuous 
sneak-thievery.  Petty  thieving  by  the  lads  of  Greece 
was  then  considered  a  necessary  accomplishment. 
More  than  that,  the  boy  who  came  back  empty- 
handed  from  a  foraging  expedition,  was  brutally 
punished,  even  unto  death, 


146  Crimmal  Types 

With  germane  facts  of  comparatively  recent  his- 
tory in  mind,  the  "correspondent"  probably  wouldn't 
have  been  guilty  of  assertion  so  grossly  incorrect ; 
yet  the  fact  remains  that  loosest  of  declaration  has 
for  long  years  been  employed  by  a  certain  class  of 
writers,  in  furtherance  of  impish  itch  for  cheap,  if 
ephemeral  prominence. 

Furthermore,  for  a  State  directly  to  put  limited 
stamps  of  approval  on  its  young  thieves,  as  did  the 
agents  of  Lycurgus,  would  be  but  one  of  many  ways 
by  which  to  establish  them;  in  very  truth,  the  in- 
direct method  of  doing  so  is  hands  over  the  most 
pernicious  and  far-reaching  method. 

The  most  expeditious  anti-social  job  of  the  latter 
kind  is  done  as  it  is  being  done  the  country  over  in 
the  United  States ;  which  is  to  say :  maim  the  crim- 
inal law  until  it  goes  on  crutches,  and  at  the  same 
time  order  prison  regimes  to  square  with  the  instinc- 
tive reactions  of  lawbreakers.  That  is  to  play  both 
ends  against  the  public  security ;  and  that  is  pre- 
cisely the  condition  with  which  the  American  people 
are  confronted. 

To  tale  off  a  summary  of  associated  influences 
would  crowd  a  bulking  volume.  Also,  it  would  yield 
what  mostly  wasted  effort  yields,  since  Ameri- 
cans have  been  fully  cognizant  of  the  constantly 
widening  cracks  in  the  national  structure,  as  well  as 
of  the  manner  in  which  those  openings  have  been 
effected. 


''Excess  Prophets''  147 

He  knows  that  neither  added  nor  rescinded 
statutes  can  ehminate  bad  lines  of  blood,  established 
mainly  by  an  immigration  policy  framed  and  exe- 
cuted as  if  to  establish  those  lines  of  blood.  Hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  those  of  the  "lines"  are  daily 
plying  disruptive  wares ;  wares  which  they  will  con- 
tinue to  ply,  more  or  less,  unto  at  least  the  fifth 
generation  ahead.  A  country  cannot  sit  up  of  a 
sudden  and  determine  to  serve  overnight  antidote 
for  the  slow  poison  of  its  people. 

He  knows  class  legislation  is  deadly  to  democracy ; 
yet  he  sits  supinely  tight  while  organized  labor  suc- 
cessfully clubs  with  votes  for  special  privileges,  suc- 
cessively the  more  indefensible. 

He  knows  the  avaricious  brute  is  at  the  bottom  of 
all  of  war,  and  he  knows  blood-letting  within  such  as 
the  sixteen-foot  prize  ring  is  the  cruelest  of  war  in 
miniature.  Nevertheless,  he  piles  his  own  dollars 
on  the  pyramid  of  dollars  pulled  down  annually  by 
the  pug-ugly  fraternity,  the  while  winking  the 
nether  eye  as  his  own  kiddies  are  imbued,  through 
suggestion  and  example,  with  the  spirit  of  the  fistic 
parasite. 

Nor  must  women  be  denied  her  meed  of  praise. 
She,  too,  is  getting  the  punching  habit  of  mind. 
Hundreds  of  the  be  jeweled  of  her  wait  breathlessly 
at  the  ringside  for  the  benignant  "K.  0."  Her 
voice,  raised  for  the  making  a  national  pet  of  the 
parasitic   pug,    is    recorded :    "I   am   not   especially 


148  Crijnmal  Types 

fond  of  seeing  the  blood  flow;  but  I  just  dote  on 
'draws/  " 

When  the  femme  de  ring  shall  have  wormed  her- 
self a  bit  further  into  the  mysteries  of  the  roped 
arena,  she  will  be  bally-well  fed  up  with  "draws," 
the  majority  of  which  are  "crooked"  in  order  to 
coin  "easy  money."  Also,  she  will  likely  transmit 
to  her  brood  the  instinct  to  shunt  productive  work 
and  tear  things. 

He  knows  fattened  money-hogs  shoulder  to  bar 
the  way  to  the  money-trough,  where  they  pile  fat 
on  fat. 

He  knows  of  the  cheap  flings  of  the  charlatan ;  of 
the  ruthlessly  lawless  reach  of  the  radical  labor 
leader ;  of  the  rotten  bases  from  which  the  bebadged 
are  frequently  forced  to  work ;  of  the  political  chi- 
canery by  which  the  sting  is  drawn  on  the  one  hand 
from  the  edicts  of  upright  judges:  and  on  the  other 
hand — if  much  less  frequently  yet  frequently  enough 
— written  into  the  edicts  of  legal  agents  whom  the 
ermine  but  drapes. 

He  knows  all,  and  more,  and  sundry;  yet  he  will 
not  so  much  as  step  to  the  primary  and  register  his 
vote  against  the  nefarious  combination. 

Shall  the  load  be  fastened  to  his  back,  he  will 
have  none  but  himself  to  blame.  Hundreds  of  voices 
have  for  long  years  dinged  into  his  ears  the  danger 
ahead. 

For  threatened   retrogression  none  are  more  re- 


"Excess  Prophets"  149 

sponsible  than  those  who  have  known  better,  but 
who,  willy-nilly  for  a  price,  have  shunted  public 
thought  from  facing  actual  conditions,  to  an  abiding 
faith  in  the  reverse  of  all  of  human  experience. 
Hence  the  drifting  with  the  flood  tide  of  those  con- 
ditions; and  hence  the  miserable  mix  of  the  moment. 
Take  just  one  more  gem,  illustrative  of  the  kind 
of  self-contradictory  stuff  which  the  public  has  pur- 
blindly  swallowed.  It  is  out  of  the  scrambled  brain 
of  one  Avho  assumes  to  see  reformatively  from  "the 
hill  of  vision." 

(1)  Pro:  "If  other  men,  living  under  the  same 
conditions,  succeed  in  maintaining  their  integrity, 
what  excuse  can  the  criminal  claim  for  his  failure 
to   do  the   same?" 

(2)  Con:  "In  conclusion,  the  criminal  is  a  man 
whose  faculities  are  not  well  balanced.  'Just  as  the 
twig  is  bent,  the  tree's  inclined.'  " 

Broadly  speaking,  the  "conclusion"  is  correct; 
but  observe  that  it  fights  the  companion  question, 
tooth  and  nail.  First  off,  the  average  man  does 
not  carry  the  handicap  of  congenital  predisposi- 
tion to  thieve,  as  do  most  of  instinctive  thieves.  As 
a  "twig,"  he  was  not  "bent"  and  "inclined"  that  way. 
Secondly,  "other  men"  had  not  "lived  under  the  same 
conditions" ;  so  the  positive  case  is  at  once  cleared 
of  the  cardinal  hypothesis.  And  thirdly,  since  the 
criminal  of  the  class  indicated  "is  a  man  whose 
faculties   are   not  well  balanced";   and   since  "Just 


150  Criviinal  Types 

as  the  twig  Is  bent  the  tree's  Inclined,"  he  has  at 
least  two-fold  limited  excuse  for  his  oblique  thoughts 
and  deeds,  likewise  claim  upon  our  commisera- 
tion. 

Examples  of  the  kind  given  could  be  multiplied 
indefinitely ;  Indeed,  it  is  the  exception  to  come  upon 
soclo-crlmlnological  writing  that  will  stand  up,  even 
under   large-lens    analysis. 

Thoughtless  plungers,  with  their  half-baked  opin- 
ions, we  have  a'plenty ;  idlosyncratics  are,  of  course, 
irrepressible,  since  like  the  true  criminal,  "thejlr 
faculties  are  not  well  balanced";  the  self-seeking 
advertiser  never  misses  a  throw  no  matter  how  cheap ; 
purse-packing  politicians  play  the  penological  game 
for  the  "rake  off'*;  hectic  emotionalists  berate  those 
who  do  not  see  with  eyes  blind  to  the  wide-open 
machinations  of  criminal  malingerers ;  kindergarten 
panaceas  are  seriously  advanced  as  means  by  which 
to  stop  death-dealing  bandits ;  and  a  dash  of  the 
seasoning  of  the  conglomerate  mess  is  done  by  every 
dilettante  who  has  worried  through  the  like  of 
Freud's  "dream"  stuff. 

It  wouldn't  occur  to  a  bookkeeper  that  he  could 
remove  his  coat  and  weld  a  better  joint  than  can  a 
blacksmith ;  nor  to  a  lawyer  that  he  could  lay  brick 
to  line  with  a  journeyman  mason;  but  any  man  or 
woman  who  has  fondled  a  fetich  of  reform,  backed 
by  the  most  casual  knowledge  of,  and  contact  with 
criminals,  has  been  cock  sure  of  call  to  draw  plans 


"Excess  Prophets"  151 

and  specifications  for  seasoned  criminologists  to  fol- 
low. 

Therefore  the  game  of  penology  has  attracted  and 
held  very  few  big  men,  who  have  refused  a  vocation 
in  which  one  must  constantly  adjust,  then  readjust, 
to  the  dissonant  tinkling  of  little  bells,  rung  by  indi- 
viduals who  cannot  be  brought  to  listen  for  the  fun- 
damental tones  of  reform.  And  therefore  puerile, 
patch-quilt  prison  methods,  with  rivalry  between 
single-seeing  cults  as  to  which  could  place  the  great- 
est emphasis  on  bizarre  banalities. 

"All  of  true  force  is  silent."  If  you  know  base- 
ball to  its  vitals,  sit  in  the  grand  stand  and  test  out 
that  truism ;  observe  there  how  the  mouthy  "fan'* 
will  miscall  the  turn,  both  on  the  player  and  the 
play.  Observe,  also,  how  the  real  student  of  the 
game  is  too  busy  following  the  finesse  of  the  gen- 
eral play  around  the  whole  circuit,  to  be  led  into 
a  Dervish  dance  over  outstanding  features.  And 
observe  that  while  "stars"  may  "twinkle,"  it  is  the 
evenly-balanced  team,  and  team  work  that  nails  the 
pennant  to  the  staff. 

Team  work  !  Support  of  every  man  by  every  other 
man  engaged  in  a  given  work !  That  would  be  made 
as  if  to  the  hands  of  social  and  prison  refonn ;  but 
it  wouldn't  enable  the  "twinkler"  to  worm  himself 
under  caption  type.  True,  self-praise  is  seldom 
written  into  the  final  record;  albeit  he  who  cun- 
ningly employs  the  kin  of  it  can  appreciably  hold 


152  Criminal  Types 

up  his  betters,  and  the  big  work  they  take  earnestly. 

Contrary  to  the  general  understanding,  prison 
reform  stands  at  inches  below  the  mark  set  for  it 
decades  ago  by  fitted  and  far-seeing  men.  .  It  could 
not  have  been  otherwise  under  grossly  overdone  pro- 
bation and  suspensions,  made  binding  by  most  ill- 
considered  sentences  to  institutions  wherein  indus- 
trial and  auxiliary  averages  have  been  cut  to  the 
pattern  of  habitual  felons. 

The  remedies?  Enumeration  of  them  would  fill 
another  big  book.  A  few,  basic  ones,  are  struck  off 
by  the  writer  in  his  Stop  Thief !  Agreeably  with  the 
specific  lines  of  this  chapter,  the  public  can  make  a 
prime  start  at  actually  speeding  up  social  and 
prison  reform,  through  searching  out  self-alleged 
social  seers  for  what  they  actually  know  about  the 
game  they  essay  to  umpire ;  as  well  as  how  they  came 
by  knowledge  sufficient  to  do  it. 

The  cumulative  effect  of  little  pills  of  social  effort 
can  help  clarify  the  reform  atmosphere;  but  when 
it  does  the  pellets  are  charged  with  the  dynamic 
alternative  of  divine  law. 

"Excess  Prophets!"  Pseudo  protagonists!  Aye! 
And  spot  the  man,  no  matter  what  his  station  or 
calling,  who  lends  influence  of  kind  whatsoever  to 
fasten  the  minds  of  lads  and  lassies  on  "sporting" 
non-producers. 

Essentially,  bear  down  hard  on  him  who  would 
knight  the  wont-work  principal  of  that  lowest-down 


"Excess  Prophets"  153 

abomination  called  "the  prize  ring" ;  else  history  will 
have  it  America  went  out  of  her  way  to  flout  a  gen- 
tle Jesus,  and  thereby  to  dig  her  own  thug-planned 
grave. 

Hyperbolic  rot?  You  don't  believe  it?  Then 
think  on  it  that  while  millions  of  men,  willing  to 
work,  can't  get  work,  the  gate  receipts  of  the  brutal 
affair  about  to  be  pulled  off,  as  between  Dempsey 
and  Carpentier,  will  aggregate  close  to  sixteen-hun- 
dred-thousand  dollars ;  and  that  a  cool  half  rail- 
lion  of  that  sum  will  go  to  the  principal  "pugs," — 
say  nothing  of  the  aftermath  in  such  as  moving  pic- 
ture rights,  and  vaudeville  stunts  to  drive  tlie  devilish 
business  home. 


CRIME  AND  THE  LAY  CRITIC 

"Boast  not  of  happiness  until  you  reach  the  last 
day  of  your  life,"  Croesus  admonished  Solon,  the 
code  builder  of  ancient  Athens. 

"For  the  condemned  I  entertain  but  little  blame, 
and  for  the  good  but  scant  praise,"  echoes  a  lady, 
who  would  direct  us  from  the  hill  of  vision  how  to 
reform,  rather  than  punish  criminals. 

Casual  comparison  discloses  little  of  kin  between 
the  admonition  and  declaration  quoted;  yet  they 
shoot  from  the  same  trunk,  if  not  from  the  same 
branch.  Both  flout  well-being  and  doing.  Put  into 
practice,  either  would  make  of  life  a  juiceless  grind. 

The  lady  further  affirms  that  "One  of  our  chiefest 
duties  is  to  rehabilitate  the  criminal  into  respect  for 
himself."  The  platitude  would  carry  more  of 
weight,  were  it  unqualified.  Moreover,  her  declara- 
tion fights  her  assertion,  since  a  man's  "respect  for 
himself"  presupposes  just  pride  in  a  robust  manhood. 

Condone  vice  and  discount  virtue,  and  you  lock 
arms  with  the  habitual  criminal.  He  does  exactly 
that.     Denying  sufficient  of  moral  motive  for  honest 

154 


Crime  and  the  Lay  Critic  155 

endeavor,  he  moves  over  lines  of  least  resistance  to 
that  which  he  craves.  Doing  it,  he  will  twist  such 
as  the  lady's  startling  epitome  of  the  moral  code  to 
square  with  his  oblique  selections. 

And  the  good  lady  would  not  "greet"  prisoners 
with,  "Ye  who  enter  here,  leave  all  hope  behind," 
but  put  them  to  "tending  plants,"  and  thus  solve  a 
vexing  problem. 

As  a  first  essential,  reformatory  prisoners  are 
"greeted"  with  plenty  of  soap  and  water.  Their 
free-life  garments  are  sterilized  or  burned.  The 
house  physician  then  passes  on  their  physical  condi- 
tion. In  clean  skin  and  garb,  they  are  now  ready 
for  biographical  examination  by  the  Superintendent, 
by  whom  they  are  given  a  straightforward  talk 
concerning  the  aims  of  the  reformatory.  In  much 
the  same  manner,  they  pass  through  the  hands  of 
the  heads  of  departments.  They  are  then  ready  for 
trade,  scholastic,  military  and  gymnastic  instruc- 
tion. 

Religious  services  for  all  denominations  are  held. 
Classes  in  ethics,  nature  studies  and  history  are 
heard.  Amusements  and  lectures  are  frequent  and 
varied.  The  personal  equation  is  strongly  marked. 
One  would  needs  employ  reams  of  paper  to  specify 
the  advantages  afforded  prisoners  in  a  modern  re- 
formatory. It  is  sufficient  to  place  that  named 
against  trite  verbiage,  such  as  "leave  all  hope  be- 
hind," and  it  is  only  fair  to  add  that  when  reforma- 


156  Criminal  Types 

tive  offices  are  rendered  abortive,  they  usually  are 
because  of  the  purblind  meddling  of  kindergarten 
criminologists. 

For  the  submerged  fraction  who  are  held  in  pris- 
ons of  last  resort,  every  humane  thing  should  be 
done,  even  though  they  had  refused  the  good  offices 
of  society,  both  in  and  out  of  prison;  yet  must  we 
face  the  portentous  truth  that  an  appreciable  per- 
centage of  habitual  criminals  so  confined,  are  those 
who  had  sounded  the  full  gamut  of  institutional  life. 
Reformatories  always  confine  a  positive  number  of 
graduates  of  juvenile  schools  of  reform,  and  thou- 
sands of  ex-reformatory  lads  go  marching  on  to  con- 
vict prisons. 

Why?  For  one,  cardinal  reason,  because  those 
who  have  guided  public  opinion  in  matters  crimin- 
ological, cannot  be  made  to  understand  that  life  is 
a  most  serious  business  for  these  young  men.  The 
majority  of  them  are  loaded  down  with  natural  or 
acquired  handicaps,  not  the  least  serious  of  which 
is  dislike  of,  and  opposition  to,  consecutive,  concen- 
trated endeavor.  Hence,  such  lads  need  above  all 
else  to  be  subjected  to  mental,  moral  and  physical 
education  and  training,  most  carefully  prescribed 
and  prosecuted.  This,  to  the  end  that  they  may 
build  to  sound  minds  in  sound  bodies,  and  have  it 
borne  in  upon  them  that  "Work  is  worship." 

Instead,  the  pressure  of  many,  who  merely  putter, 
has  been  for  surface  pursuits  for  prisoners ;  for  ac- 


Crime  and  tlie  Lay  Critic  157 

tivities  which  have  the  least  to  do  with  reformation. 
Result :  thousands  upon  thousands  of  such  young 
men  have  been  paroled,  again  paroled,  and  once  more 
paroled,  from  correctional  institutions,  unskilled  as 
to  a  legitimate  trade  or  occupation,  with  the  half- 
opened  minds  of  the  thief  or  thug,  with  hearts  drawn 
to  contempt  for  the  social  scheme  in  part  responsible 
for  their  plight,  and  for  correctional  training  which 
left  them  to  fight  against  prohibitive  odds. 

Clean  and  uplifting  recreative  exercises  for  re- 
peating felons  should  be  regulated  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  necessary  mental  and  physical  relaxa- 
tion. Such  exercises  should  not,  other  than  on  State 
or  holiday  occasions,  interfere  with  the  regular  daily 
schedule  of  the  reformative  regime.  That  is,  and 
must  be,  relatively  drastic.  The  social  exactions 
upon  instinctive  recidivists  leave  no  choice  in  the 
matter.  They  must  be  broken  to  both  the  halter  and 
the  harness  of  the  free  life  working  day. 

As  to  occasional,  unskilled  felons,  committed  un- 
der the  indeterminate  sentence  and  its  average  short 
detention  period,  nothing  less  than  concentration 
of  thought  and  energy  on  their  part  can  spell  social 
rehabilitation  for  them.  In  free  life,  it  takes  a  young 
man  from  five  to  seven  years  to  become  a  journey- 
man mechanic.  About  ninety  of  the  hundred  of  re- 
formatory inmates  are  mechanically  unprepared 
when  received.  They  are  detained  less  than  fifteen 
months  on  the  average.    Consider  such  circumstances 


158  Criminal  Types 

and  say  how  many  "plants"  they  should  "tend"  dur- 
ing the  daylight  of  their  prison  day?  In  many 
cases  their  families  require  support,  and  they  the 
hand-tool  or  other  skill  with  which  to  support  them. 
Without  the  skill,  they  are  reduced  at  best  to 
skin  games ;  and  that's  the  crux  of  the  crime 
question. 

An  effusive  member  of  the  sterner  sex,  with  quill- 
swagger  of  the  criminological  dilettante,  cheapens 
the  pages  of  a  popular  periodical  with  the  follow- 
ing: "What  brutes  were  these  (prison)  guards  on 
whose  good  will  the  parole  of  many  prisoners  de- 
pended ;  but  what  could  one  expect  of  those  willing 
to  accept  positions  that  degraded  their  incumbents 
below  the  convicts  over  which  they  lorded  it."  Here, 
you  have  the  Hugoistic  echo,  to  the  effect  that  the 
mere  badge  of  authority  postulates  degradation. 
Monstrous  libel ! 

With  impartial  and  lavish  hand,  the  gentleman 
further  tosses  these  bon-bons  to  "members  of  the 
board  of  managers  for  prisons":  "And  who  were 
these  men  who  sat  in  deliberation  over  the  destinies 
of  thousands  .P  Were  they  trained  criminologists 
skilled  to  decide  questions  of  crime  and  punishment? 
Had  they  the  capacity,  the  knowledge,  and  the  ex- 
perience that  would  fit  them  to  perform  so  nice  a 
task,  or  were  they  mere  politicians,  blown  into  high 
places  by  the  winds  of  favoritism?"  And  here,  you 
have     scrambled     thinking     again.       How     "train 


Crime  and  the  Lay  Critic  159 

criminologists,"  other  than  through  their  intimate 
contact  with  criminals? 

Bombastic  mode  of  attack  with  embellishment  of 
incident  might  be  pardoned,  were  it  employed  to 
condemn  the  manner  in  which  corrigible  lads  are 
railroaded — at  the  instigation  of  lay  reformers — (  ?) 
through  juvenile  institutions  and  reformatories  to 
State  prisons,  and  there  suggested  into  the  habitual 
class  of  offenders  against  the  public  law.  But  such 
language  as  that  quoted  in  the  preceding  paragraphs 
grossly  amplifies  untruth  not  only:  it  is  incendiary 
as  well. 

Crass  sensationalists,  mawkish  sentimentalists, 
and  misguided  philanthropists  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding, there  have  been,  there  are,  and,  if 
we  do  not  mend  our  penological  ways,  there  will  be 
increasing  thousands  of  criminals  by-choice  operat- 
ing in  the  States,  to  whom  such  utterly  reckless  and 
false  statements  furnish  the  last  formula  for  their 
depraved  and  dangerous  instincts.  The  periodical 
to  which  we  allude  is  on  the  library  list  of  many  of 
our  reform  institutions.  Rather  than  feaze  those 
who  seek  either  to  amuse  themselves,  or  to  blaze 
forth  as  bellwethers,  or  to  line  their  purses,  or  to 
utter  easily  recognized  counterfeit  coin  of  Bolshe- 
vistic coinage  at  the  game  of  penology,  we  assume 
they  will  construe  it  a  right  rich  joke  to  learn  that 
extracts  such  as  those  quoted  are  frequently,  if 
surreptitiously,  struck  off  on  institutional  presses, 


160  Criminal  Types 

and  spread  broadcast  into  the  hands  of  prisoners. 

Self-expression  from  conviction  matures  the  man 
and  makes  the  nation;  but  the  pose  of  protagonist 
imposes  grave  responsibility.  He  who  assumes  it 
in  writing  for  the  public  eye,  on  a  subject  vital  to 
the  security  of  the  commonwealth,  owes  it  to  himself 
and  to  his  readers  to  employ  whatsoever  he  elects 
to  be  the  weight  of  his  influence  against  contact  of 
extremes;  to  write  well  within  knowledge,  observa- 
tion and  experience  studiously  gained,  and  not  at  all 
scandalously.  Those  who  write  and  speak  otherwise, 
are  in  the  way  of,  rather  than  pointing  the  way  to, 
the  reformation  of  the  criminal.  Quasi-billingsgate 
is  quite  reliably  the  chosen  weapon  of  the  cheap 
charlatan. 

"Trained  criminologists,"  to  whom  our  voluble 
friend  so  confidently  refers,  make  few  general  state- 
ments regarding  the  genesis,  etiology,  and  successive 
stages  of  crime;  but  they  are  one  in  the  conclusion 
that  it  is  first  of  all  a  most  complex  social-science 
study,  not  conclusively  reducible  to  a  given  number 
and  kind  of  prime  factors.  Notwithstanding,  gentle- 
men peck  diligently  at  "poverty"  for  the  root  of 
crime.  Were  it  so,  "The  Jukes,"  the  most  prolific 
genealogical  tree  of  pauperism  of  which  we  have 
record,  would  hardly  have  pushed  thirty  per  cent  of 
its  branches  up  through  poverty  not  only,  but  as 
well  through  the  effluvia  of  licentiousness,  alcoholism, 
and  crime,  to  the  sunlight  of  wholesome  growth. 


Crime  and  the  Layi  Critic  161 

It  is  yet  true  that  craving  want  betimes  aggra- 
vates the  causes  of  crime,  albeit  it  does  not  com- 
monly initiate  criminal  action.  From  both  the  ob- 
jective and  subjective  points  of  view,  it  is  in  a 
larger,  deeper,  and  more  wide-spread  sense  true,  that 
the  urge  and  surge  for  things  for  which  no  man 
has  need,  impel  to  felonious  conduct. 

Next  to  bad  blood — which  cries  for  expression 
out  of  the  graveyards  of  remote  generations — the 
carrying  power  of  false  suggestion  and  example  is 
perhaps  the  most  potent  force  in  unmaking  men. 
The  criminal  readily  educes  that  if  a  "captain  of 
industry"  may  at  one  and  the  same  time  pick  the 
nation's  pocket  and  effect  the  garb  of  a  lowly  Jesus, 
the  habitual  thief  may  "tell  his  beads"  and  thereby 
discharge  his  moral  obligations  to  society. 

In  character,  a  country  is  as  good  as  its  sup- 
posedly best,  and  bad  as  its  worst  citizens,  the  in- 
fluence of  the  former  of  whom,  when  employed  to  mis- 
direct wealth  and  mislead  authority,  is  the  most  per- 
nicious menace  to  national  character  and  longevity. 

From  the  standpoint  of  essential  values,  therefore, 
the  felon  finds  it  more  and  more  puzzling  to  parse 
virtue.  He  observes  that  mainly  from  the  ranks  of 
the  cultured  and  wealthy  are  recruited  our  greatest 
and  meanest  offenders ;  offenders  all  of  the  time 
against  moral  law,  and  as  much  of  the  time  as  they 
dare  against  legal  law,  a  distinction  which,  our  man 
insists,  begs  the  fundamental  questions  of  right  and 


162  Crimmal  Types 

altruism.  He  is  told  that  a  filched  dollar  remains 
a  filched  dollar  still,  alike  when  attempt  is  made  to 
make  it  represent  one  or  another  fonn  of  brotherly 
love,  and  when  employed  to  garner  more  filched  dol- 
lars. He  passes  no  sleepless  nights  over  the  ethics 
of  the  question,  but  does  construe  it  a  rcsentable 
mystery  that  he  should  go  to  prison,  and  his  proto- 
type on  to  social  prominence. 

Philip  of  Spain  was  a  bit  over-zealous  "for  the 
glory  of  his  Lord  and  master."  It  was  lame  state- 
craft and  lamest  Christianity  which  visited  unspeak- 
able torture  on  loyal  subjects.  But  that  were  hu- 
mane, compared  with  methods  by  which  the  bulk  of 
a  great  people  are  condemned  to  grubbing,  color- 
less lives.  Kill  a  man's  chance  to  express  himself 
as  nature  intended  and  constantly  demands  of  him, 
and  as  for  fullness  of  living  he  is  half  dead.  He  is 
also  in  the  mood  to  dare  the  abyss. 

It  is  well  to  emulate  those  who  stride  over  obstacles 
to  wholesome  success;  yet,  in  justice  to  the  horde 
with  whom  it  is  a  constant  grind  to  tip  the  balance 
of  mental  reach  and  physical  stamina  with  the  aver- 
age of  their  fellowmen,  let  it  be  plainly  understood 
that  they  who  win  distinction,  do  it  while  drawing  on 
God-given  gifts. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  real  greatness,  or  actual 
criminousness,  by  accident.  The  instinctive  thief 
thieves  through  the  operation  of  laws  as  fixed  as 
those  which  determine  the  tides ;  laws,  expressed  also 


Crime  and  the  Lay  Critic  163 

in  weight  of  influence  which  impels  the  morally 
oblique  to  yield  blessings  of  birthright  for  sin-stained 
money. 

Much  of  contention  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing, few  criminals  commit  crime  because  of  lack 
of  ability  or  opportunity  to  make  an  honest  living; 
but  first  and  foremost  out  of  poverty  of  character 
which  induces  anti-social  processes  of  reasoning. 
The  latter  is  superinduced  by  obsei'vation  and  con- 
templation of  the  fact  that  billions  of  "easy  money" 
flow  into  the  bunkers  of  those  who  least  respect  law, 
either  human  or  divine.  The  aim  of  the  criminal  by- 
choice,  is  to  make  "easy  money." 

Of  such  are  the  teeth  of  the  master-key  to  multi- 
tudinous doors  leading  to  common  and  uncommon 
rascality.  They  also  unlock  to  thoroughfares  over 
which  endless  columns  of  human  parasites  wend  their 
way.  Hereditary  pressure  and  criminal  atmosphere 
aside,  they  are  the  chicfest  of  crime-breeding  mo- 
tives, not  comparable  with  that  which  we  ordinarily 
sense  as  poverty,  which,  during  the  plastic  years, 
may  well  operate  as  a  blessing,  rather  than  ae  a 
curse. 

And  let  it  further  sink  in  tliat  the  meanest  and 
most  dangerous  of  quasi-parasites  is  he  who  pyra- 
mids consecutively  on  that  which  he  mulcts  from  the 
common  purse. 

Beyond  all  men,  penologists  welcome  light  on  the 
predal    puzzle;    also,    they    evaluate    accurately — 


164  Criminal  Types 

though  the  public  does  not  always  as  yet — the 
smudge  from  the  farthing  candles  of  self-seeking 
academicians.  And  that  is  to  ignore  the  perjured 
meanderings  of  press  agents  Avho  peddle  spurious 
wares  for  a  price.  Of  the  latter,  ex-prisoners  cun- 
ningly thereby  take  a  whack  at  law  and  order  while 
the}'  "cop  the  coin."  Moreover,  lay  "uplifters"  en- 
courage the  criminal  cunning. 

It  is  bad  enough  when  those  who  ought  to  know 
the  fallacy  and  sin  of  it,  attempt  to  substitute  false 
procedure,  loose  methods,  and  maudlin  sentiment 
for  the  vigorous  and  synthetic,  if  kindly  education 
and  training  which  alone  can  make  good  and  self- 
supporting  lads  of  lads  who  instinctively  stumble. 
It  is  not  far  from  dastardly  when  censure  for  the 
disappointing  results  which  follow,  is  heaped  on 
the  shoulders  of  those  who  make  creditable  use 
of  tools  quantitatively  and  qualitatively  so  meagre, 
that  the  States  must  needs  wax  ashamed  of 
them. 

We  give  serious  attention  to  the  trite,  wholly  in- 
judicious, and  grossly  false  allegations  against 
"prison  guards"  and  their  superiors  in  rank,  be- 
cause it  is  past  time  to  attach  advalorem  tags  to 
ever-recurring,  petty  consideration  of  a  grave  prob- 
lem; a  problem  so  profound,  that  those  who  give  to 
it  the  most  consecrated  research  are  surest  to  put 
on  the  mantle  of  charity  and  the  modest  mien ;  and  a 
problem  with  which  Americans  supinely  drift,  con- 


Crime  and  the  Lay  Critic  165 

tent  to  leave  prescriptions  for  remedial  measures  to 
those  who  could  not  box  their  criminological  com- 
passes under  either  a  theoretical  or  practical  show- 
down. 

In  about  the  same  ratio,  prison  guards  and  college 
graduates  fail  to  make  broad  use  of  their  institu- 
tional training.  Neither,  so  derelict,  draw  inspira- 
tion for  work  to  the  true  perspective  of  service.  The 
one  will  see  in  education  but  books,  and  the  other 
in  the  prisoner  but  deviltry.  Nevertheless,  at  col- 
lege is  the  place  to  study  books,  and  in  prison  the 
place  to  study  the  prisoner.  There  is  but  one  way 
by  which  one  can  come  actually  to  know  the  criminal, 
and  that  is  to  live  and  work  with  him. 

We  rightly  accord  praise  to  those  who  point  the 
defective  equipment  of  certain  so-called  "types"  of 
criminals.  By  the  same  token,  let  us  dig  up  better 
than  sneers  for  those  who  remodel  faulty  human  clay 
and  shape  it  into  something  like  the  true  image  of 
man. 

Those  noisiest  and  most  illogical  find  naught  in 
the  criminal  to  challenge  other  than  means  of  re- 
formation which  would  ordinarily  correct  the  pranks 
of  a  headstrong  youth.  So,  in  free  life,  we  induct 
the  occasional  criminal,  and  in  institutional  life 
encourage  him  to  lock  arms  with  the  habitual  crimi- 
nal ;  for,  once  started  on  the  toboggan  of  crime,  the 
former  usually  gravitates  to  the  level  of  the  lowest 
of  his  class. 


166  Criminal  Types 

Of  all  ills,  in  or  out  of  prison,  with  which  our 
people  are  afflicted,  tiiat  of  false  clemency  with  cod- 
dling is  the  most  pronounced  and  far-reaching.  So, 
natural  laws  will  have  it ;  and  so,  therefore,  the  after- 
parole  record  attests. 

While  the  personal  equation  in  prison  manage- 
ment should  never  be  negatively  considered,  the  re- 
formation of  the  criminal  still  resides  at  his  finger 
tips.  That,  in  the  final  analysis,  whether  or  no 
our  man  likes  "Steve"  of  the  institutional  staff; 
approves  or  disapproves  of  any  part  of  the  house 
regime;  tells  the  truth  about  all  following  his  re- 
lease, or  tells  out-of-whole-cloth,  stock-in-trade  lies, 
with  which  the  habitual  criminal  is  ever  ready  to 
assail  the  ears  of  the  super-emotional. 

The  last  and  only  reliable  test  of  the  efficiency  of 
a  regime  of  reform  reduces  to  the  question  of  re- 
cidivation;  which  is  to  say:  what  percentage  of  the 
grand  total  of  the  paroled  lapse  into  crime  follow- 
ing parole,  are  caught  at  it,  and  are  reincarcerated, 
either  under  the  original  or  new  indictment?  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  we  have  not  and  cannot  have  in- 
forming data  concerning  the  above,  vital  point,  until 
we  shall  have  established  an  international  bureau  of 
anthropometry,  as  well  as  regulations  pertaining  to 
the  indeterminate  sentence  which  shall  insure  rea- 
sonable supervision  over,  and  control  of,  the  paroled 
felon.  Then,  even,  regiments  of  habitual  repeaters 
will  not  be  "caught  at  it."    And  then,  those  will  "re- 


Crime  and  the  Lay  Critic  167 

port'*   as    from    a   prayer   meeting,   who   had   just 
cracked  a  safe. 

The  criminal  in  America  is  peculiarly  a  menace  to 
society  because  of  that  which  we  do  not  know  and  do 
not  find  out  about  him.  Such  data  as  we  have  stands 
a  serious  blemish  on  the  penological  escutcheon  of 
the  nation,  and  makes  comparison  with  the  best  pre- 
war results  of  other  nations  as  unsatisfactory  as 
humiliating. 

Foreign  penologists  say  to  us:  "Especially,  you 
make  your  corrective  systems  read  well,  and  we  must 
allow  that  they  look  the  real  thing;  but  we  find  it 
difficult  to  reconcile  the  efficiency  you  claim,  with 
the  number  of  recidivists  you  admit.  Please:  why  so 
many  criminal  rounders  in  and  out  of  your  prison 
houses?"  Why,  indeed,  and  it  is  a  question  a  patient 
people  cannot  shunt  much  longer. 

Nothing  is  so  expensive  to  the  State  as  the  criminal, 
concerning  the  future  of  whom  in  America,  this  is 
binding:  the  moment  society  at  large  concerns  itself 
seriously  with  individual  practice  of  the  "Golden 
Rule,"  and  incidentally  about  alleged  prison  mal- 
practice, that  moment  we  shall  begin  to  get  criminals 
in  leash,  and  not  before. 

In  the  meantime,  if  some  would  not,  as  they  do, 
through  loosely  written  and  spoken  construction 
of  vice,  virtue  and  authonty,  place  a  premium  on 
anti-social  expression,  they  would  probably  render 
the  best  aid  of  which  they  are  capable  to  the  singu- 


168  Criminal  Types 

larly  complex  work  of  reform.  Calling  false  turns 
is  simply  to  give  the  criminal  more  rope.  Playing 
up  to  the  criminal,  and  down  the  public  security,  is 
to  make  bald  bid  for  social  chaos. 

"At  least,"  said  Hippocrates,  "Father  of  Medi- 
cine," to  his  students,  "be  sure  that  you  do  no  harm." 
So  much  should  be  demanded  of  Pharisaic  punters 
with  a  penchant  for  scurrilous  scribbling. 


X 

PRISON  DISCIPLINE 

Not  one  in  ten  thousand  digs  to  the  deep  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "discipline." 

Particularly  as  to  prison  application,  discipline 
is  in  the  minds  of  the  great  majority  as  measures 
objectively  imposed  to  compel  subjective  adjust- 
ment to  house  rules  and  regulations  laid  down. 

Such  contracted  view  covers  only  so  much  of 
primary  compulsion  as  may  be  necessary  to  imbue 
refractory  criminals  with  at  least  fearsome  respect 
for  correctional  measures.  Thereafter,  the  aim 
should  be  to  enlist  the  prisoner's  voluntary  efforts 
for  skill  and  culture  under  his  own  control. 

Few  prisoners  challenge  the  mailed  fist  of  the 
State.  Save  for  some  of  those  confined  in  prisons 
of  last  resort,  the  bulk  of  prisoners  buckle  to,  from 
one  or  another  motive,  and  make  the  best  of  a  bad 
job  to  an  early  parole. 

They  do  not  mean  to  take  their  cue  from  the 
seething  fraction  that  always  constitutes  the  nucleus 
of  real  criminals  in  America.  As  a  rule,  the  latter 
have  first  off  to  be  force-fed  to  a  degree  in  order  to 

16 


170  Criminal  Types 

bring  home  to  them  the  potency  of  the  State's  power. 

If  discipline  visited  upon  such  men  is  to  carry 
for  their  amendment  and  repair,  it  must  take  heed 
of  natural  and  acquired  predispositions  to  think  and 
act  obliquely. 

True,  there  come  times  when  the  persistently  re- 
fractory course  of  the  unit  leaves  him  beyond  the 
pale  of  disciplinary  choice.  Where,  in  the  face  of 
every  good  influence  and  helping  hand,  a  prisoner 
goes  about  it  advisedly  to  stir  up  group  manifesta- 
tions against  reformative  processes,  there  is  noth- 
ing for  it  but  to  meet  him  with  power  beyond  his 
own.  Moreover,  when  he  insists  upon  contact  of  ex- 
tremes, no  apology  should  be  offered  in  the  process 
of  forcing  him  to  respect  for  that  power.  And  more- 
over, it  is  tentatively  insignificant  if  the  "respect" 
is  engendered  solely  by  fear  of  the  consequence.  As 
an  individual  he  persistently  crosses  the  common 
good.  As  an  individual  he  must  be  met,  until  he  is 
brought  to  understand  that  hyenaized  conduct, 
causeless  except  for  his  ego-centric  curves,  entitles 
him  temporarily  to  no  more  consideration  than  is 
accorded  the  self-determining  social  pariah.  This, 
because  his  interests  as  compared  with  the  interests 
of  the  mass,  are  for  the  time  being  as  naught. 

The  cardinal  mistake  in  the  matter  of  handling 
instinctive  anti-social  plungers,  consists  in  not  tak- 
ing up  disciplinary  stitches  with  them  in  time,  as  for 
instance:   every    reformatory    in    the   land    confines 


Prison  Disciplme  171 

an  appreciable  percentage  of  "graduates"  of  juvenile 
schools,  in  which,  as  "cute"  kids,  they  were  indulged 
day  in  and  out  in  the  execution  of  self-centered  acts. 

Common-sense  disciplinary  measures  visited  at 
once  upon  such  lads,  then  followed  up  consecutively 
to  the  logical  end,  would  have  mended  matters  for  the 
most  of  them ;  and  by  common  sense  we  refer  mainly 
to  natural  impositions  and  deprivations,  with  the 
right  kind  of  individual  effort  for  them  strongly 
marked. 

But  no ;  they  were  rated  as  just  unthinking  boys 
who  were  blowing  off  surplus  steam.  There  was  no 
question  about  the  blowing  off  of  surplus  steam,  al- 
beit they  were  not  blowing  it  off  unthinkingly.  To 
the  contrary,  they  were  calculatingly  transferring 
the  ways  and  means  of  the  thuggish  gangster  to 
reformative  domain,  and  scoring  with  it ;  scoring  with 
it  individually  not  only,  but  by  "gang"  expression 
in  strongholds  of  the  State's  social  defense.  Hence, 
incipient  riot  essential  in  mass  manifestations  that 
occur  in  certain  juvenile  schools  of  reform. 

Just  such  lads  are  either  rushed  to  parole,  or 
the  load  is  shifted  to  reformatories  by  transfer  di- 
rect. Through  turning  back  onto  society  lads  who 
had  run  to  institutional  rope  about  as  they  chose 
to  run,  while  they  had  been  groomed  to  despise  dis- 
cipline and  the  State's  disciplinary  agents,  the  same 
load  is  indirectly  unloaded,  not  always  inadver- 
tently, it  would  seem. 


172  Criminal  Types 

Heads  of  first-aid  houses  of  correction  have  been 
blamable  for  the  named  procedures,  only  in  so  far 
as  they  must  have  yielded  of  conviction  in  order  to 
prosecute  banal  measures  prescribed  by  their  su- 
periors in  rank  of  lay  extraction ;  but  be  the  facts 
thereof  as  they  may,  they  have  imposed  first  off  upon 
reformatories  the  heaping  chore  of  causing  lads  to 
put  off  forms  of  expression  to  which  they  had  be- 
come habituated  while  under  the  initial  care  of  the 
State. 

By  the  time  reformatories  get  such  ego-centric, 
instinctively  anti-social,  wretchedly  brought-up  lads, 
they  are  better  than  half-strapped  to  the  toboggan 
of  crime.  Throughout  the  plastic  and  most  impres- 
sionable of  years,  inclusive  of  time  spent  under  State 
instruction,  they  had  made  pretty  nearly  their  own 
pace,  pretty  close  to  the  pace  that  kills.  Of  self- 
discipline  they  had  learned  next  to  nothing,  and  less 
of  the  law  of  consequence.  Accustomed  to  having 
unearned  donatives  tossed  them,  and  to  force  com- 
promise with  their  obliquely-conceived  and  collec- 
tively-executed flings  in  primary  institutions,  they 
see  no  reason  why  they  should  be  denied  the  one, 
or  held  up  as  to  the  other,  in  the  first  reformatories 
to  whicJi  they  are  committed.  What  is  more,  the 
public,  purblind  when  not  indifferent  to  basic  causes 
and  motives  for  their  continued  criminous  conduct, 
is  naturally  inclined  to  their  view.  Therefore 
periodicals     pay     for    the    spurious     stuff    of    ex- 


Prison  Discipline  173 

prisoners,  expressed  with  the  gusto  of  injured 
innocence. 

The  average  lay  critic  portrays  a  reformatory 
to  the  public  as  a  place  where  magic  wands  of  re- 
formation can  and  should  be  wielded.  No  matter 
that  a  lad  had  been  the  terror  of  his  ward ;  then  had 
been  practically  established  by  a  juvenile  plant 
a  rough-shod,  "faking,"  shirking,  undercutting 
yoUng  "roughneck":  the  reformatory  must  blow 
him  to  virtue  as  Nature  blows  the  mushroom,  else 
it  is  smugly  pronounced  passe  by  those  who  do  not 
know  and  cannot  know  of  the  instinctive  reactions 
of  natural,  crime-soaked  young  felons. 

Furthermore,  gentlemen  responsible  for  utterly 
false  procedure  in  juvenile  reform  schools,  are  the 
readiest  to  visit  stricture  upon  reformatories,  be- 
cause they  do  not  work  reformative  miracles  in  jig 
time  upon  lads  with  whom  the  gentlemen  themselves 
so  miserably  failed. 

By  the  same  token,  the  same  gentlemen  are  in- 
consistent while  grossly  unfair,  who  lash  prison  offi- 
cials because  they  do  not  reach  reformatively  those 
same  lads,  passed  up  to  them,  via  themselves  and  re- 
formatories. 

"Just  as  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree's  inclined."  The 
primal  responsibility  for  such  lads  rests  with  society 
as  a  whole,  beginning  with  the  lamest  and  most 
loosely  executed  immigration  laws  ever  framed  by 
man,  resulting  in  a  big  brood  of  the  big  brood  of 


174  Crivimal  Types 

anarchists  and  semi-anarchists,  who  have  yet  to  do 
their  worst;  so  much  empliasized  by  execution  of 
the  general  law  so  lax  as  to  be  ludicrous ;  the  last 
clamped  down  by  legislation  designed  to  catch  and 
hold  the  votes  of  militantly  self-centered  groups ; 
and  all  made  binding  by  so  ordering  the  activities  of 
corrective  regimes,  that  they  shall  square  with  the 
instinctive  reactions  of  predal  felons. 

As  if  all  of  that,  with  its  endfess  chain  of  pernici- 
ous by-products,  were  not  enough,  we  needs  must 
nationalize,  heroize,  and  put  on  pedestals  the  clan 
parasite  for  the  youth  of  the  land  to  emulate,  fea- 
turing "get-rich-quick  Wallingford"  and  pug-ugly- 
drone  stripes. 

At  the  present  moment,  millions  of  men  and  women 
in  America  acutely  in  need  of  work,  can't  get  it. 
Why?  Fundamentally  because  billions  of  dollars 
have  been  shunted  from  legitimate  channels  of 
trade  to  sporting  grooves,  there  to  circulate  mainly 
from  pocket  to  pocket  of  parasites ;  and  there 
to  remain,  most  of  them,  relatively  dead  to  in- 
industry. 

A  dollar  turned  over  and  over  in  legitimate  busi- 
ness, and  constantly  growing  as  it  goes,  has  quite 
somewhat  the  edge  on  the  dollar  passed  to  the  gamb- 
ling clerk,  to  the  bookmaker,  to  other  gamblers  and 
their  grand  army  of  henchmen  such  as  "fillers  in" 
and  race  track  "touts,"  to  prostitutes  and  prostitu- 
tion of  work  and  the  worker:  and  then  back  in  bulk 


Prison  Discipline  175 

to  the  gambler  of  one  or  another  kidney,  to  be  passed 
around  a  like  circle. 

That  is  to  follow  the  pocket-to-pocket  circulation 
of  but  one  "sporting"  dollar.  The  variations  and 
combinations  of  route  are  legion,  but  the  illustra- 
tion points  our  point,  which  is  that  America  is  at 
pains  to  imbue  the  minds  of  her-up-coming  lads  with 
false  values,  as  for  instance:  gone  sporting  mad, 
she  puts  a  kingly  premium  on  the  blood-spilling  brute 
and  parasite,  and  on  his  parasitic  promoter,  while 
she  discounts  the  laudable  aims  and  efforts  of  the 
actually  deserving;  she  does,  indubitably,  through 
placing  premiums  where  she  does,  the  which  fact 
no  amount  of  sporting-monger  sophistry  can  alter. 

"Pug"  Dempsey  drew  down  $300,000  at  Jersey 
City  for  twelve  minutes  of  cruel  slugging.  The 
average  skillecf  artisan  cannot  earn  one  half  of  so 
much  money  in  a  life  time.  Get  down  on  your  knees 
and  make  that  pleasing  in  the  sight  of  God  if  you 
can,  while  millions  of  His  children  literally  waste 
away  for  lack  of  the  bread  of  life. 

Do  nothing  worse  than  grind  out  annually  in  the 
social  mill  thousands  of  sport-drugged  lads,  who 
would  be  and  remain  sporting  drones  in  the  social 
hive,  and  cure  the  case  with  a  few  reformatories  and 
prisons !    Impossible ! 

Order  reformative  regimes  so  that  their  reforma- 
tive processes  must  yield  in  practice,  suggestion  and 
example,  to  the  sporting  schedule,  and  to  inmates 


176  Crimmal  Types 

who  stand  accursed  of  outraged  sport !    Ridiculous ! 

Expect  a  spell  of  any  kind  of  discipline  to  make 
up  to  men  and  lads,  that  of  which  they  had  been 
and  are  being  cheated  by  grossly  overdone  sport! 
Futile ! 

True,  it  is,  that  prison  discipline  has  basically  to 
do  with  serviceable  muscles ;  but  serviceable  muscles 
to  be  used  to  social  and  productive  ends,  and  not  to 
the  ends  of  the  sporting  thief  who  dumps  ill-gotten 
gain  into  palms  dirtier  than  his  own. 

Another  check  imposed  upon  reformation  of  the 
kind  of  lads  in  question,  resides  in  the  State's  "penny- 
wise-and-pound-foolish"  policy  of  withholding  money 
for  working  tools  geranane  to  the  process  of  their 
reformation ;  essentially,  for  trade  tools,  and  for 
appointments  and  materials  to  match  the  tools,  in- 
clusive of  the  very  best  of  human  material. 

A  skeletonized  trade  school  can  yield  but  skele- 
tonized results:  whereas,  exactly  the  reverse  is  de- 
manded for  unskilled,  untaught  young  felons,  if  they 
are  to  be  given  a  fair  chance  to  make  good  in  free 
life.  There,  they  take  with  them  the  serious  handi- 
cap of  the  prison  brand;  and  there,  crime-free  me- 
chanics grudgingly  yield  them  place  and  portion. 
Therefore  they  must  be  ready  to  market  command- 
ing skill  and  knowledge,  else  almost  inevitably  have 
recourse  to  the  crook's  outfit. 

The  "policy"  of  the  State  thereof  is  "penny-wisc- 
and-pound-foolish,"  because  it  is  much  cheaper,  in 


Prison  Discipline  177 

the  end,  to  school  a  lad  for  social  rehabilitation  and 
have  done  with  it,  than  it  is  to  do  it  over  and  over 
again,  and  even  then  leave  him  less  than  half-baked 
industrially,  as  is  commonly  the  case. 

Amenca  holds  the  world's  record  for  recidivistic 
criminals.  She  will  continue  to  hold  that  record 
so  long  as  she  puts  up  with  the  play-house  prison, 
call  the  house  by  what  name  you  will,  and  place  it 
in  the  prison  chain  as  you  may. 

While  thinking  of  the  house,  and  of  the  work  tax 
payers  pay  for  it  to  do,  ponder  very  carefully  this 
deep-digging  declaration  by  Ignatius  Loyola,  S.  J. : 
"Let  me  instruct  a  lad  up  through  his  seventh  year, 
and  I  don't  care  who  instructs  him  after  that.'* 

Probably  beyond  that  which  Loyola  meant  to 
convey,  America's  elementary  penological  lesson  is 
plainly  written  in  his  words ;  a  lesson  America  should 
have  learned  by  heart  and  heeded,  decades  ago.  It 
is  that  she  must,  absolutely  must,  close  her  doors 
and  keep  them  closed  to  natural  breeders  alike  of 
criminals,  and  agitators  against  the  public  peace 
and  security ;  then  search  out  and  deport  such 
"natural  breeders"  who  have  sieved,  willy-nilly,  into 
the  land. 

Cures  for  habitual  criminals  seldom  cure;  cor- 
rectional quackery,  never.  Also,  when  a  lad  shall 
have  passed  the  "seventh  year"  by  seven  years,  and 
from  his  first  conscious  thought  had  been  given  ha- 
bitually to  unlawful  selection ;  and  further,  shall  have 


178  Criminal  Types 

come  congenitally  by  predisposition  for  such  selec- 
tion, the  merry-go-round  correctional  plant  is  the 
last  place  on  earth  wherein  amelioration  of  his  plight 
will  be  effected.  Young  as  he  is,  he  will  elect  and 
maneuver  for  a  criminal  career,  unless  he  is  consis- 
tently subjected  to  schooling  stripped  of  suggestion 
of  crooks  and  crookedness. 

Plenty  of  play  in  the  wide  open  an  imprisoned 
lad  must  have.  Attempt  to  fit  a  man's  head  to  a 
lad's  shoulders  is  indefensible  error;  but  the  play 
should  be  wholesome  play  purged  of  the  "pug";  it 
should  be  fixed  in  his  mind  as  relatively  incidental  to 
basic  measures  of  reform,  and  it  should  not  be  al- 
lowed to  cross  those  measures. 

As  for  the  rest,  "For  forms  of  government,  let 
fools  contest ;  that  which  is  best  administered  is  best," 
provided:  the  "form  of  government"  runs  true  to 
the  form  demanded  by  the  intrinsic  social  exactions 
upon  a  lad. 

Contrariwise,  attempt  such  as  to  make  farmers 
out  of  young  men  whose  urban  life  has  been  decided 
by  every  natural  circumstance,  is  at  once  waste  of 
time,  material  and  human  potential,  and  to  fly  in  the 
face  of  geographic  destiny.  City-bred  felons  will 
take  on  just  so  much  of  farming  as  compulsion 
compels,  or  the  ulterior  motive  dictates,  and  not  a 
stroke  at  it  more.  If  you  question  the  above  asser- 
tion, ask  any  farmer  who  has  tried  out  the  ex-pris- 
oner farmer  who  was  city-bred. 


Prison  Discipline  179 

Coming  down  to  detail  for  correctional  discipline, 
one  must  carefully  guide  one's  pen.  General  state- 
ments thereof  are  unassailable  only  when  they  predi- 
cate the  unchangeable ;  yet  certain  factors  cannot  be 
shaken  from  their  shoes.  Truth  camouflaged  is  no 
less  a  lie.  Dull  the  edge  of  honesty  and  it  does  not 
cut  to  the  bone  of  equity.  Make  the  manual  proc- 
esses pay  tribute  to  by-play,  and  bald  bid  is  made 
for  the  drone-sport.  Compromise  with  chronic  per- 
petrators of  evil  deeds  done  out  of  evil  intent, 
through  loading  them  with  largesse,  and  they  are 
furnished  v/ith  the  last  formula  for  piling  deviltry  on 
deviltry.  Construe  a  lad's  conduct  as  of  primal  im- 
portance, while  holding  his  reaction  to  educative 
activities  to  be  of  secondary  import,  and  build  be- 
yond doubt  to  the  faker  and  malingerer.  Essay  to 
form  or  reform  character  either  with  the  "billy"  and 
billingsgate,  or  with  padding  and  coddling,  and  the 
result  will  reflect  the  asinine  tools  employed.  Imbue 
lads  with  the  belief  that  their  reformation  is  an  over- 
night joke,  and  they  will  make  night  hideous,  as 
well  as  most  of  days — for  good  measure. 

Beyond  all,  lead  erring  youths  to  believe  them- 
selves immune  to  religiously  prosecuted  discipline 
fitted  to  the  individual  case,  just  because  they  are 
youths,  and  their  huzzahs  as  one  for  you  will  not 
shrive  you  of  your  share  of  responsibility  for  their 
continued  criminousness. 

Jt  is  easy  to  scold,  hard  alike  to  salve  and  save ; 


180  Criminal  Types 

but  the  salving  and  saving  must  be  done.  The  scold- 
ing has  been  coming  to  some  for  a  long,  long  time ; 
particularly  to  self-nominated  lay  reformers,  and 
"uplifters,"  who  mostly  reform  and  uplift!  after 
the  fashion  the  frog  jumped  out  of  the  sHme-coated 
well,  Avhich  is  to  say :  farther  down  to  slime  at  every 
attempted  leap  to  light. 

While  that  is  a  pity,  out  of  the  efforts  of  many 
who  keenly  engage  to  help,  it  is  also  seriously  repre- 
hensible; for,  he  who  affects  the  role  of  protagon- 
ist concerning  the  most  complex  problem  given  man 
to  solve,  owes  it  to  society  to  know  intimately  the 
order  of  the  criminal's  going;  else  he  will  find  him- 
self hopelessly  enmeshed  in  a  labyrinth  of  motive 
and  counter  motive. 

It  is  also  easy  to  write  disciplinary  "don'ts,"  and 
betimes  most  difficult  to  execute  them.  Just  the 
same,  don't  curse ;  don't  threaten,  bluff  or  be  bluffed ; 
don't  lose  your  temper;  don't  make  promises  unless 
you  can  fulfill  them  to  the  letter;  don't  construe 
as  directed  against  you  personally,  acts  that  are 
aimed  at  bigger  game;  don't  fraternize  with  prison- 
ers to  the  gutter  level;  don't  heap  discipline  of  any 
kind  on  a  lad,  until  he  needs  must  conclude  that  you 
are  "down  on  him,"  and  are  "giving  him  the  worst 
of  it";  don't  wabble;  don't  shriek;  don't  resort 
unduly  to  petty  impositions  for  petty  offenses ;  don't 
utter  false  coin  of  suggestion  and  example;  don't 
commonize  discipline  of  character  whatsoever,  else  it 


Prison  Discipline  181 

will  lose  its  carrying  poAver ;  don't  reach  lightly  for 
tags  of  stigma :  they  depress  and  discourage ;  don't 
despise  hints  dropped  to  you  by  lads  who  are  hoping 
for  better  things,  and  who  may  lead  you  to  the  cor- 
rect psychology  of  the  individual  case,  and  of  the 
mass ;  and  don't  assume  that  you  know  it  all  about 
crime  and  criminals :  no  man  does,  nor  can,  give 
him  a  life  time  to  do  it. 

Do  seek  to  know  yourself,  your  man,  and  so  much 
of  a  great-big  work  as  it  is  possible  for  you  to 
know.  Doing  it,  realize  yours  will  be  just  one  opin- 
ion about  it  all.  Scores  of  others  have  written  that 
which  you  must  absorb  in  saving  degree,  if  you  are 
to  get  a  grip  on  what  makes  and  keeps  men  criminal. 

In  short,  be  actually  a  compassionate  criminolo- 
gist with  an  open  mind,  and  not  a  misinformed,  or 
half-informed,  or  uninformed  ego-centric,  single- 
track  dilettante,  who  drives  ruthlessly  along  rock- 
strewn  roads,  over  which  life  students  of  budding 
and  budded  felons  soon  enough  learn  that  they  must 
pick  warily  their  way  all  of  the  way. 

But,  warning!  Listen  to  the  "personal  equation" 
cult,  and  many  of  the  conclusions  given  off  in  this 
chapter  by  the  writer  postulate  him  a  fit  subject  for 
the  psycho-analyst.  According  to  that  wrecking 
crew,  nothing  clings  to  the  habitual  young  felon 
that  can't  be  cast  off  with  such  as  baseball,  and 
a  bit  of  "laying  on  of  hands" — by  the  "crew,"  of 
course. 


182  Criminal  Types 

The  "hands"  have  been  patting  and  puttering 
persistently  during  the  past  three  decades.  Result? 
The  mounting  American  Apache  has  not  so  much 
respect  for  law  and  agents  of  the  law,  as  eagle  for 
sparrow.  He  rides  gun-hung,  kills  for  the  mere 
blood-lust  of  killing,  lies  "until  the  cows  come  home," 
and  laughs  up  his  sleeve  betimes  over  the  use  he 
makes  and  use  made  of  "research"  of  him. 

Caught  and  corralled — against  which  the  chances 
are  about  ten  to  one — he  nestles  down  in  many  a 
State  nest,  where  he  practically  dictates  in  a  boiled 
shirt,  and  "does"  what  he  sneeringly  terms,  "sleepin' 
time."  This,  spite  of  the  written  effusions  of  ex- 
criminals,  who  rush  to  print  with  grossly  overdrawn 
statement — for  a  consideration. 

Writing  and  speaking  about  the  class  of  criminals 
in  question,  gentlemen  affect  the  esoteric.  They  have 
it,  for  instance,  that  the  offenders  are  mostly  "mor- 
ons," hopelessly  ox-like  mentally  by  nature's  fling 
in  embryo,  or  the  victims  of  arrested  mental  develop- 
ment. Therefore,  gentlemen  are  moved  to  hurl  an- 
athema at  those  who  dare  the  assertion  that  appre- 
ciable irresponsibility  applies  only  to  "morons"  who 
had  not  measured  up  to  average  intelligence  at  any 
form  of  human  activity,  do  not  do  so,  and  probably 
cannot  Ao  so. 

Apparently,  it  does  not  occur  to  our  friends  that 
the  mind  that  functions  alertly  along  any  one  line, 
can  be  developed   to   function   alertly   along  many 


Prison  Discipline  183 

lines.  In  any  case,  the  question  of  the  subject's  vol- 
untary efforts  will  be  uppermost;  yet  that  question 
may  be  quite  foreign  to  his  intrinsic  mental  content. 
If  he  chooses  to  be  a  mighty  clever  thief,  just  as 
another  chooses  to  be  a  mighty  clever  mechanic,  and 
pursues  single-mindedly  his  choice,  he  won't  know 
any  more  about  mechanics  than  the  mechanic  knows 
about  thievery;  but  if  he  becomes  a  mighty  clever 
thief,  he  will  have  used  brains  sufficient  for  any  ordi- 
nary accomplishment.  That  he  had  side-tracked 
honest  for  crooked  skill  agreeably  with  the  weight  of 
influences  exerted  upon  him,  relates  usually  to  his 
moral  obliquity,  and  not  to  his  meagre  mentality. 

Specific  mental  efforts  held  in  "arrest"  by  him 
who  spurns  the  fruition  of  such  efforts,  by  no  man- 
ner of  means  classifies  him  a  "moron"  in  the  sense 
that  he  is  commonly  classified  a  moron.  His  choice 
of  mental  activity  is  oblique,  but  his  execution  under 
the  choice  stamps  him  as  anything  but  a  mental  dud. 
He  is  usually  a  moral  mongrel  from  mixed  causes, 
and  must  be  prescribed  for  as  such. 

Were  any  but  the  lowest  gi-ade  of  predal  felons — 
bungling  imitators  they — fit  subjects  for  kinder- 
garten treatment,  they  were  not  able  to  master  the 
most  massive  time-locked  safe  locksmiths  can  con- 
trive; nor  could  they  "get  away"  with  about  ninety 
per  cent  of  their  loot ;  nor  hold  peace  officers  in  con- 
tempt, and  the  combined  sleuths  of  the  land  pretty 
much  at  bay ;  nor  press  so  cunningly,  individually 


184  Criminal  Types 

and  collectively,  for  ill-timed  and  placed  prison  per- 
quisites, and  for  comparative  freedom  of  choice  in 
the  matter  of  their  response  to  actual  reformative 
measures ;  nor  cast  crooked  lines  and  haul  in  the  be- 
badged;  nor  enlist  the  "pull"  and  "protection"  of 
higher-up  grafters  and  meanest  of  secondary  thieves ; 
nor  so  mix  high-soaring  mixers  of  prison  broth  that 
they  don't  know  which  way  to  turn  for  ingredients, 
and  do  turn  over  the  seasoning  thereof  to  habitual 
criminal  rounders ;  nor  lead  up  to  false  cards,  ex- 
posed all  the  way  from  prevention  to  parole,  in- 
clusive of  gross  stretching  of  probatory  extensions. 

Real  prison  discipline  for  such  men  means  a  sharp 
tacking  of  their  minds  away  from  criminal  shoals. 
Aside  from  educative  activities  understood,  such  as 
trades  and  scholastic  instruction  closely  and  con- 
secutively imparted,  it  means  a  taking  up  of  their 
loose,  anti-social  slack,  mental  and  physical;  par- 
ticularly and  essentially,  of  their  smug  contention 
to  the  effect  that  society  is  an  "easy  mark"  for  all 
kinds  of  criminous  flim-flam  and  bunco-steering. 

Well,  then,  what  are  the  corporal  and  semi-cor- 
poral disciplinary  tools  to  be  employed  on  the  job? 
Any  tool,  this  side  of  cruelty  or  brutality  stripped 
of  revenge,  which  will  bring  it  home  to  habitual,  by- 
choice  marauders  who  do  murder  for  diversion,  that 
they  cannot  dance  on  the  shoulders  of  the  State. 

What.''  Make  prison  life  for  such  men  dully  auto- 
matic,   comparatively,   under   an   industrial    drive.'* 


Prison  Discipline  185 

Precisely.  Make  life  in  prison  onerous  enough  to 
them  so  that  they  will  turn  to  honest  toil,  rather 
than  enHure  it. 

Reinstate  the  mechanism  and  the  spirit  of  the  "hell 
holes  of  Egypt"?  Not  at  all;  but  reinstate  respect 
for  law  and  authority  in  the  minds  of  such  as  death- 
dealing  parasites;  let  them  know,  baldly,  that 
"comin'  a  shootin'  "  for  hard-earned  gelt,  does  not 
entitle  them  to  browse,  else  buck  in  prison. 

First  of  all,  have  done  with  the  "Welfare  League" 
fraud.  Have  done  with  the  idea  that  instinctive, 
habitual  felons,  amenable  both  to  the  menace  and 
machinations  of  many  other  instinctive,  habitual 
felons,  whom  they  must  sooner  or  later  face  in  free 
life,  can  be  trusted  to  preside  over  the  destinies  of 
a  prison  population.  That  throw  is  precarious,  even 
for  colleges,  where,  if  those  in  the  know  are  to  be  be- 
lieved, it  is  touted  as  doing  exactly  that  which  it 
does  not  do. 

At  any  rate,  go  to  the  subterranean,  perversely 
sex-charged,  murderous  record  for  evidence  on  which 
to  condemn  the  prison  Welfare  League ;  but  doing 
it,  insist  upon  examination  of  all  of  the  books,  of  the 
submerged  tenth  of  prisoners  who  are  cheated  by 
specious  crooks,  and  of  the  entire  after-parole  record 
of  the  latter. 

Then  use  the  eyes  of  your  mind,  clamp  down  the 
lid  on  banal  counterfeits  of  reformative  processes, 
break  active  agents  who  bungle  with  those  counter- 


186  Criminal  Types 

feits  for  a  price,  and  you  will  help  make  secondary 
prisons  what  they  should,  nay,  must  be  made,  viz: 
industrial  bee  hives,  wherein  would-be  social  wolves 
go  bang  up  against  compelling  contrast. 

"Never  again !"  said  an  ex-prisoner,  as  an  English 
turnkey  "good-lucked"  him  into  free  air  from  one 
of  England's  convict  prisons.  When  American 
criminals  so  exclaim  on  being  released  from  American 
prisons,  we  shall  cease  to  have  falsely-alleged  "waves" 
of  crime,  and  not  before. 

Rational  prison  discipline  involves  no  less  a  chore 
than  to  change  the  point  of  view  of  men  become 
habitually  a  law  unto  themselves.  The  view  point 
will  vary  in  accordance  with  the  amount  and  kind 
of  adverse  influence  unloaded  upon  the  subject,  in- 
clusive of  his  congenital  scars.  There  will  be  paral- 
lels tli'at  apply  to  nearly  all,  and  sharply-defined 
tangents  that  mark  the  few.  Comparative  insensi- 
bihty  to  pain,  borne  or  inflicted,  examples  in  the 
first  instance.  The  oversexed,  undersexed,  and  sexu- 
ally perverted  declare  in  the  second  case. 

A  prison  population  is  never  of  one  mind,  nor  of 
the  same  clay,  save  only  for  a  common  criminal 
camaraderie,  ever  alertly  expressed  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  those  who  think  criminologically  in  single 
numbers. 

Therefore,  the  man  who  rushes  behind  bars  with  a 
cock-sure  cure-all  for  criminality,  is  at  once  to  be 
pitied    and   shunned;    and   less   than    reformatively 


Prison  Discipl'me  187 

useless  is  the  individual  who  does  not  understand  that 
the  particular  reasons  for  the  manner  in  which  a 
given  criminal  was  grooved  for  crime,  predicate  the 
means  by  which  he  may  best  be  weaned  from 
crime. 

In  other  words,  while  all  must  be  held  closely  to 
catholic  schooling,  such  as  trades  and  occupational 
teaching,  the  emphasis  belongs  wlicre  Nature  and 
unnatural  acquirement  place  it. 

Shall  a  grown  lad  have  acquired  a  mania  for  the 
sporting  life,  say,  and  not  so  mucli  as  a  smattering 
of  vulgar  knowledge,  he  should  be  held  down  on 
sports  until  he  engages  earnestly  for  knowledge; 
he  should,  because  he  cannot  hope  to  get  anywhere 
worth  while  and  remain  a  crass  dunce;  he  cannot, 
in  conscience,  out  of  his  old-age  exactions,  however 
such  as  the  baseball  "fan"  may  howl  to  the  con- 
trary. God  planned  for  man  to  be  something  bigger 
and  better  than  an  ignorant  automaton  at  play; 
also.  He  demands  deeper  digging  by  man  than  that 
which  reduces  to  mere  making  of  dollars. 

It  is  clearly  up  to  correctional  plants  to  raise 
their  charges  beyond  the  level  of  the  "tin"  sport. 
Even  where  exceptional  sporting  ability  is  shown,  it 
should  not  be  allowed  to  cross  the  making  of  the 
whole  man.  This,  because  when  sucli  as  the  cun- 
ning of  his  throwing  arm  fails  a  man,  he  must  have 
recourse  to  commanding  skill,  and  pleasures  of  the 
mind,  else  the  sharp  edge  of  the  meaning  of  life  will 


188  Criminal  Types 

cut  into  his  soul,  while  he  drifts  down  stream  a  de- 
pendent derelict. 

Service  is  the  "meaning  of  life.'*  Service  begins 
with  self-discipline.  Self-discipline  presupposes  ra- 
tional arrangement  of,  and  adjustment  to,  basic 
values.  Tlierefore  the  essential  purpose  of  the  par- 
ent State  should  be  to  establish,  or  reestablish,  basic 
values  in  minds  either  cheated  of,  or  switched  from, 
basic  values. 

The  process  may  not  be  put  up  in  a  neat  parcel 
of  print.  It  includes  all  that  must  be  put  off,  put 
on,  amended  and  repaired.  Nothing  germane  is  so 
small  as  to  be  negligible.  Nothing  is  too  big  to  be 
attacked.  Abnormalities,  before  all  else,  should  re- 
ceive the  strictest  of  attention. 

Essentially,  the  kindly,  helpful,  well-timed  and 
placed  word,  is  golden. 

Irreproachable  suggestion  and  example  are  of 
the  very  weave  of  the  mosaic  of  character. 

Unquestionable  square  dealing  serves  to  file  off 
the  ragged  edges  of  resentment,  born  of  restricted 
liberty. 

Patience  of  the  kind  the  good  Grod  has  with  us 
all,  is  due  His  derailed  children. 

None  but  the  measure  naturally  suited  to  the 
man  and  his  offense,  will  carry. 

False  clemency  is  crime-breeding;  yet,  punishment 
that  leaves  only  the  smart  of  pain  suffered,  makes 


Prison  Discipline  189 

the  soul  of  the  recipient  of  it  seethe  against  the  man, 
or  men,  by  whom  it  was  applied. 

The  first  duty  of  the  disciplinarian  is  to  make 
clear  the  necessity  for,  and  the  righteousness  of,  the 
condign  measure. 

Appeal  to  reason  put  in  words  that  flow  from  the 
heart,  is  never  totally  lost. 

Not  all  of  compulsory  discipline  is  negative,  and 
not  all  of  educative  discipline  can  be  made  purely 
voluntary. 

Pain  is  Nature's  mentor  and  monitor.  The  mo- 
ment man  essays  to  eliminate  all  of  pain,  he  miscues. 

The  long  arm  of  discipline  should  reach  at  one 
and  the  same  time  for  the  serviceable  tool,  and  for 
precept  to  keep  the  gaze  of  lads  fixed  on  the  stars : 
and  so,  keep  the  balance  in  their  minds  established 
as  between  the  finite  and  the  infinite. 

Reams  could  be  written  as  to  what  discipline  should 
do  and  leave  undone,  agreeably  here  with  individual 
exactions,  and  there  with  first  regard  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  mass. 

It  remains  with  the  disciplinarian  neither  to  cross 
values,  nor  to  confound  magnitudes.  Doing  that, 
he  will,  if  he  is  wise,  examine  as  closely  as  he  may 
the  sum  of  human  experience;  then  rely  on  plumb 
plain  horse  sense. 

As  to  psjcho-analj'sis,  the  latest  wonder  worker: 
practically  the  same  thing  has  been  called  by  several 


190  Criminal  Types 

names ;  but  it  has  its  positive  uses  in  deeper  diving 
for  disturbing  impulses,  and  in  a  more  enlightened 
method  of  passing  healing  suggestion.  Pressed  to 
the  exclusion  of  palpable  exactions  easily  read  and 
met,  it  can  be  rendered  a  nugatory  nuisance. 

For  several  decades,  advanced  criminologists  have 
been  delving  very  close  to  the  manner  in  which  psy- 
cho-analysts delve  to-day;  indeed,  the  difference  in 
the  mode  of  operating  as  between  the  two  is  not  suffi- 
cient to  demarcate  them  fundamentally.  Both  aim 
at  change  of  habit  of  thought  and  action,  primarily 
through  removing  obsessions  from,  and  establishing 
actual  values  in,  the  mind ;  and  secondarily,  through 
so  reordering  the  entire  environment  of  the  subject 
as  to  reinforce  the  primary  process. 

However,  those  who  look  for  such  as  psycho- 
analysis to  carry  the  burden  of  the  quiring  for  re- 
formation, are  destined  for  disappointment.  They 
are,  for  the  very  simple  reason  that  an  individual  is, 
at  a  given  moment,  the  sum  of  countless  impressions, 
thousands  of  which  were  not  sufficiently  engraved 
on  his  memory  to  abide  there ;  but  which,  to  the  last 
impression,  pyramided  upon  either  his  good,  or  bad, 
or  doubtful  character.  Therefore,  mental  research 
must  be  comparative,  as  is  every  thing  else  on  earth ; 
and  therefore,  the  results  accruing  from  mental  re- 
search will  be  comparative  results,  as  are  all  results 
on  earth. 

Just  the  same,  one  needs  must  dig  deeply  while 


Prison  Discipline  191 

aiming  high;  but  above  all  else,  tie  to  fully-known, 
practical  quantities,  and  apply  them  so  that  they 
shall  yield  as  nearly  as  possible,  under  the  circum- 
stance, to  the  height  of  their  power. 

In  so  far  as  mental  research  goes  hand  in  hand 
in  sequence  with  that  dictum,  it  will  bless.  Whereas, 
if  it  is  reduced  by  too  strenuous  devotees  to  the  in- 
dignity of  a  fad,  it  will  likely  go  the  way  of  fads ; 
for  it  is  no  "cure-all,"  and  is  first  aid  to  the  be- 
fuddled mind. 


XI 


PSYCHOLOGY  AND  THE  CRIMINAL 

"Worthy  to  be  a  rebel;  for  to  that  the  multiplying 
villainies  of  Nature  do  swarm  upon  him." 

Macbeth:  Act  I:  Scene  I. 

Matter  of  the  preceding  chapters  touches  the 
mental  crotchets  of  criminals  with  reference  to  given 
courses  of  conduct  by  given  types  of  criminals. 

Though  to  do  so  is  always  precarious,  something 
approaching  general  statement  must  be  employed 
to  demarcate  different  grades  of  lawbreakers ;  yet 
attempt  to  classify  criminals  and  keep  them  classi- 
fied, must,  in  measure,  go  by  the  boards.  Hence, 
for  one  reason,  our  caption  reads,  "Psychology  and 
Criminal,"  instead  of  Psychology  of  the  Criminal." 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  psychology  of  the  crimi- 
nal. There  is  psychology  of  a  given  criminal,  under 
given  circumstances,  in  a  given  environment,  after 
a  given  bringing-up.  The  rest  will  issue  with  the 
preponderating  weight  of  influence,  comprehensive 
as  relates  to  the  activities  in  full  from  birth  of  a 
given  subject,  in  addition  to  his  congenital  markings. 

The  school  of  crime  differs  from  any  other  school- 
192 


PsycJiologij  and  the  Criminal  193 

ing,  in  that  the  order  of  procedure  is  usually  retro- 
gressive instead  of  progressive.  Your  dockrat  sneak- 
thief  dreams  of  the  notable  moment  when  he  can 
ride  gun-hung  with  broad-day  bandits.  The  tyro 
at  dealing  crookedly  from  a  "cold  deck"  practices 
assiduously  for  the  day  when  he  can  "go  South" 
and  "mark"  cards  while  they  are  in  play  with  the 
best  of  them:  the  which  means  that  he  must  take 
with  him  naught  of  the  rough-hewn  churl  in  speech 
and  approach,  since  crass  attack  would  cross  the 
high-class  "suckers"  for  whom  he  casts  his  lines. 

Right  here  it  is  pat  to  interpolate  a  cardinal  clue 
as  to  why  so  many  cannot  be  brought  to  realization 
of  the  ominous  menace  of  the  criminal ;  and  why 
criminals  of  all  types  "get  away  with  it,"  both  with- 
out and  within  prison  walls. 

Baldy  put,  the  clue  is  this :  the  average  man  is 
singed  by  the  always  base,  sometime  crooked  desire 
to  get  something  for  nothing;  to  get  something  for 
nothing,  albeit  someone,  or  ones,  must  be  robbed 
of  the  "something" ;  and  that  the  something  is  turned 
over  and  over  in  grooves  where  men  are  carried  to 
cumulative  loss,  then  betrayed  into  selection  of  out- 
and-out  criminal  tools  in  attempt  to  make  good  the 
loss. 

Thousands  of  dollars  pass  daily  on  sea-going  craft 
and  coast-to-coast  trains,  from  the  hands  of  dupes 
who  would  get  something  for  nothing,  into  the  hands 
of  travelling  card  sharks.    For  long  years,  the  pull- 


194  Criminal  Types 

man-car  card  crook  has  been  more  common  than 
quackery  cure-alls;  yet  he  never  lacks  ready  lay 
listeners  primed  to  help  mulct  fellow  passengers,  and 
he  never  makes  empty-handed  exit  at  a  way  station. 

That  would-be  reavers  are  reaved  b3'  professional 
cheats  is  as  it  should  be.  Also,  it  explains  in  de- 
gree why  so  many  can  be  bamboozled  into  the  belief 
that  imprisoned  felons  can  be  dealt  something-for- 
nothing  cards,  take  them  to  a  social  scheme  closely 
competitive,  and  there  win  with  them  in  play  against 
players  whose  necessary  call  it  is  to  read  at  a  glance 
the  bungling  efforts  of  the  inexpert. 

The  quotation  under  the  caption  of  this  writing  is 
aimed  against  "merciless  Macdonwald,"  by  a  serg- 
eant in  Shakespeare's  Macbeth;  Macdonwald  who 
fawned  upon  King  Duncan  to  his  face,  then  turned 
on  his  heel  and  redoubled  his  efforts  to  destroy  his 
liege  lord. 

The  quotation  leads  the  column  because  it  typifies 
a  prime  factor  of  the  psj^chology  of  the  meanest  of 
most  destructive  scoundrels  America  makes ;  mean- 
est in  intent,  and  most  destructive  because  they  com- 
bine a  spurious  cleverness  at  tale  telling  and  writing, 
with  an  insidious,  self-centered  criminal  cunning. 
Hence,  their  periodic  effusions  in  print  given  over 
to  concealment  of  the  actual  truth,  or  to  biting  hands 
that  had  fed  them. 

In  the  one  instance,  witness  the  ex-convict's  tirade, 
ostensibly  aimed  at  prison   abuses,  but  actually  a 


Psychology  and  the  Criminal  195 

venomously  lying  attempt  to  hold  up  the  enacting 
predicates  of  penal  law — which  he  hates ;  and  in  the 
other  instance,  such  as  forged  paper  issued  to  the 
tune  of  thousands  against  men  who  had  picked  him 
from  the  gutter  and  put  him  on  his  feet. 

Considering  such  common  cases,  bear  in  mind  that 
but  a  modicum  of  them  reach  public  print.  Like 
serious  injuries  taken  at  football,  only  a  small  per- 
centage are  officially  reported.  For  reasons  per- 
sonal to  the  gulled,  they  usually  take  their  grilling 
and  close  the  incident  in  silence — thereby  motivating 
for  aggravated  treatment  of  the  like  of  others  of 
the  tribe  whose  purses  P.  T.  Barnum  could  always 
open   with   an  impossible   probability. 

There  are  ex-prisoners,  thousands  of  them,  who 
put  off  the  pursuit  of  crime  the  moment  a  matured 
judgment  envisaged  crime  to  them  as  at  once  de- 
generate, and,  in  the  end,  futile,  in  so  far  as  winning 
happiness  out  of  life  is  concerned ;  but  such  never 
engage  at  mud-slinging  following  upon  their  paroles 
from  prison.  Like  all  of  their  prison  comrades,  they 
had  their  ups  and  downs  in  confinement,  since  a 
prison  is,  or  should  be,  a  place  advisedly  planned  to 
disabuse  the  minds  of  its  charges  of  the  sporting 
merry-go-round  idea  of  existence  for  full-grown 
males.  But  since  they  were  set  to  pull  up  and  win 
out  on  their  merits,  rather  than  pull  down  and  prac- 
tically sneak  out  of  prison,  spite  of  demerits  therein 
piled  against  them,  they  do  not  cross  educative  meas- 


196  Criminal  Types 

ures  in  prison,  and  they  do  not  take  from  prison  any 
bitter  pills  to  peddle. 

Much  has  been  alleged  by  carping,  ego-centric  ex- 
felons,  about  prison  "hell  holes,"  all  but  a  sprinkling 
of  which  has  been  cither  absolutely  spurious  at  base, 
or  grossly  magnified  purposely  in  order  to  make  it 
marketable  news  for  print. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  worst  prison  regime  in 
the  United  States  will  help  a  prisoner  who  seeks  help, 
and  the  best  won't  reach  querulous  crooks  obsessed 
with  the  idea  of  taking  falls  out  of  law  and  order. 
What  is  more,  the  great  bulk  of  America's  correc- 
tional plants  do  not  run  to  overdone  restrictions, 
but  to  underdone  discipline,  using  the  word  "disci- 
pline" in  the  broad  to  embrace  every  educative 
process. 

Commonwealths  do  not  concur  as  to  the  scope  of 
measures  of  reform  to  be  employed  in  their  houses 
of  correction.  Some  fondle  the  last  fad  in  over- 
weening desire  to  make  use  of  saving  methods. 
Others  fight  shy  of  a  too  large  contention,  and  tools 
edged  in  reverse  of  the  sum  of  human  experience. 
Too  often  the  blessed  medial  line  is  obliterated  in  the 
impossible  scramble  for  simple  solution  of  a  complex 
problem;  but  nowhere  in  America  is  to  be  found  the 
seething  prison  sink  of  iniquity  which  the  perjured 
pens  of  mercenary  ex-prisoners  paint.  Furthermore, 
laymen  who  encourage  libel  by  ex-lawbreakers,  are 
blamably  ignorant,  or  worse. 


Psycliology  and  the  Criminal  197 

Faults  there  be,  plenty  of  them,  about  equal  as 
between  the  positive  and  negative;  faults  for  which 
ex-prisoners  of  the  Macdonwald  stripe  are  primarily 
responsible  in  very  appreciable  degree — were  all  of 
basic  truth  fully  brought  out. 

At  any  rate,  beware  the  ex-prisoner  who  shifts, 
and  whines,  and  whets  his  knife  for  the  jugular  of 
authority.  He  will  wax  Hugoistically  hectic  over 
the  devilish  damnation  of  "screws,"  otherwise  named 
guards ;  but  he  won't  tell  that  he  had  been  a  faking, 
malingering,  captious  trouble-breeder  from  his  first 
conscious  thought ;  that  he  had  never  done  an  honest 
stroke  of  work  he  could  avoid;  and  that  his  prison 
averages  throughout  had  been  such  as  compulsion 
compelled.  Never  a  hand  had  he  turned  to  help 
himself,  nor  to  help  others  help  him.  More  to  the 
point,  he  was  dog  in  the  manger  to  snarl  and  snap 
at  worthier  comrades  who  would  partake  of  unfor- 
bidden reformative  fruit. 

However,  lambasting  heartless  "bulls,"  and  slash- 
ing pig  "screws,"  are  but  surface  incidents  in  the 
subterranean  mind  of  the  ex-convict  peddler  of  al- 
leged prison  malpractice.  He  dives  much  deeper 
than  that.  What  he  actually  essays  is  to  draw  the 
sting  of  consequence  from  the  commission  of  crime. 
This,  through  pressing  for  prison  activities,  inac- 
tivities, perquisites,  and  unearned  largesse  in  one  or 
another  form,  which  so  cross  prevention  and  deter- 
rence, as  to  leave  them  without  local  habitation.    He 


198  Criminal  Types 

would  ride  halter-free  of  legal  restraint ;  hence, 
since  "bulls"  and  "screws"  are  respectively  first 
and  second-line  social  soldiers,  instinctively  hated 
by  haters  of  the  overchecked  bridle  of  basic 
law,  any  old  lie  will  do  which  discredits  bulls  and 
screws. 

A  public  that  is  mulcted  annually  in  the  sum  of 
about  a  half-billion  dollars  by  the  now-you-see-it- 
and-now-you-don't  fraternity,  cannot  be  expected  to 
search  out  ulterior  motives  while  skimming  over  the 
pyramided  fabrications  of  ex-prisoners  whose  specific 
psychology  is,  after  all,  very  simple  of  analysis. 
Brutally  and  inelegantly  put,  it  is  essentially  this : 
"Work  ye  tarriers,  work ;  and  drill  ye  tarriers,  drill," 
and  sweat,  while  I  draw  you  in  caricature — for  a 
price. 

The  Macdonwald  simile  is  apt,  in  so  far  as  it  shad- 
oAvs  forth  the  self-determining  criminal's  disloyalty 
to  the  State,  and  the  foxed  cunning  he  employs  to 
express  that  disloyalty ;  "shadows  forth,"  mind  you, 
for  only  the  good  God  Himself  can  know  to  the  base 
cells  of  the  actual  criminal's  brain.  Some  assert 
to  the  contrary ;  but  observe  that  where  they  pre- 
scribe and  proscribe,  there  criminals  ride  booted  and 
spurred;  and  there  fundamental  correctional  meas- 
ures go  on  crutches.  Bloviation  marks  at  once  the 
criminal  and  those  who  measure  the  criminal  with 
arbitrarily-spaced  tape.  Therefore  it  comes  about 
that  the  sneers  of  the  latter  are  added  to  the  sneers 


Psycliology  and  the  Criminal  199 

of  the  criminal,  directed  against  those  placed  with- 
out the  theoretically  drawn  circle. 

Surely,  all  of  fertile  grist  should  grind  in  the 
reform-mill.  The  mere  theorist  will  get  nowhere 
worth  while  in  the  work,  unless  he  packs  a  deal  of 
knowledge  having  to  do  with  crying  needs  that  cling 
close  to  earth ;  and  by  the  same  token,  the  practical 
man  will  not  score  as  he  should  short  of  a  very  good 
theoretical  grip  on  crime  and  criminals.  Rational 
penological  theory  and  practice  should  supplement 
each  other  going  hand  in  hand,  and  not  fight  for  the 
higher  distinction  as  is  at  present  the  rule.  This, 
if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  singular  scramble 
for  spoils  is  wholly  to  the  criminal's  liking;  it  warps 
judgments,  and  emboldens  lawbreakers  to  press  on 
the  lamer  side  for  favors  at  once  unearned  and  non- 
reformative. 

All,  together,  for  the  criminal's  reinstatement  as 
a  social  unit,  and  all,  together,  against  his  under- 
cutting machinations,  is  the  only  wash  of  the  kind 
that  will  come  out  white  from  the  reformative 
wringer:  team-work,  in  a  word,  with  pedestals  for 
persons  richly  earned  in  agreement  with  the  parole 
record. 

There  is  a  very  definite  difference  of  psychology 
as  between  the  majority  of  lawbreakers  who  are  in- 
stinctively non-criminal,  and  the  minority  of  in- 
stinctive criminals. 

In  the  one  case,  hosts  of  occasionals  stumble  badly, 


200  Criminal  Types 

pick  themselves  up,  make  their  remorseful  bows  to 
conscience,  break  away  from  crime,  and  thereafter 
tread  honest  paths.  They  are  rather  informed  than 
reformed. 

In  the  other  case,  by-choice  criminals — commonly 
bred  and  broken  for  the  part — take  as  naturally  to 
the  caves  of  earth  as  do  wolves,  their  animal  proto- 
types. The  instinct  to  forage  upon,  and  tear  at 
their  kind,  is  grimly  adumbrated  in  the  gusto  with 
which  they  cut  notches  in  their  guns. 

Like  the  wolf,  they  show  naught  of  mercy  in  bring- 
ing down  their  kill,  the  which  they  usually  essay 
only  when  the  odds  for  "getting  the  drop"  are  pyra- 
mided in  their  favor.  Hence,  again  hke  wolves,  they 
usually  hunt  in  pairs  or  packs.  Even  so,  and  con- 
trary to  the  common  idea,  when  forced  to  it  they 
mostly  fight  like  cornered  rats,  and  many  die  without 
thought  of  incriminating  their  "pals";  albeit  such 
manifestation  usually  carries  more  of  hatred  of 
government,  than  consideration  for  comrades, 
"double-crossed"  daily  in  the  predal  game. 

As  to  offenses  committed  against  them  by  their 
blood-brothers  in  crime,  Neapolitan  and  Sicilian- 
Italian  criminals  work  throughout  under  this  slogan : 
"If  I  live,  I  will  kill  thee.  If  I  die,  I  forgive  thee." 
Therefore  it  is  so  difficult  to  bring  home  to  indi- 
viduals, vendetta  butchery  within  the  clan. 

In  cities  of  the  first  class  particularly,  where 
Camorrists     and     Mafiausists     foregather    in     clan 


Psychology  and  the  Criminal  201 

groups,  lie  who  "squeals"  on  a  clan  member  to  a  legal 
agent,  almost  certainly  is  marked  for  death.  There- 
fore, the  very  first  duty  of  the  State  should  be  to 
combat,  with  every  means  in  its  power,  organizations 
of  anti-social  wolves  whose  first  and  last  thought  is  to 
euchre  means  by  which  social  order  is  established  and 
maintained;  for,  when  it  gets  down  to  the  marrow, 
Italian  anarchists  and  semi-anarchists,  along  with 
legions  of  other  foreigners  of  their  kidney,  operate 
further  from  declaration  substantially  like  this  :  "He 
who  does  not  defend  himself  against  agents  of  the 
law,  is  a  fool."  In  other  words,  kill,  then  combine 
to  cover  the  killer. 

Palpably,  the  only  safe  course  for  the  United 
States  to  pursue  with  units  of  the  kind,  is  to  stalk 
and  deport  them.  Good  citizens  they  cannot  be 
made;  they  cannot,  for  three  governing  reasons, 
to  wit:  (1)  It  is  too  late;  heredity  and  habit  have 
them  hamstrung.  (2)  They  haven't  the  first  iota 
of  intention  or  desire  to  become  good  citizens.  (3) 
To  try  to  become  good  citizens  after  having  gone 
the  anarchistic  gamut,  either  here  or  abroad,  would 
be  to  court  the  knife  or  automatic,  as  witness  scores 
of  current  killings,  motivated  by  attempts  on  the 
part  of  former  clan  members  to  strike  out  for  them- 
selves free  of  clan  edicts. 

Plumbing  to  the  psychology  of  a  given  criminal, 
let  not  his  racial  instincts  escape  careful  research, 
as  for  example:     Let  it  not  be  forgotten  in  the  case 


202  Criminal  Types 

of  the  Sicilian-Italian  murderer — the  most  rampant 
and  the  most  flippant — that  not  so  far  back  the 
Sicilian-Italian  was  the  most  peaceful  and  law-abid- 
ing man  on  earth ;  indeed,  the  law  of  Sicily  was  then 
mostly  operative  in  the  passed  word  of  natural 
noblemen:  tending  their  flocks,  pruning  their  vines, 
sowing  and  harvesting,  devoutly  worshiping  their 
God  while  helping  their  neighbors,  and  knowing  next 
to  naught  of  killing,  until  it  was  forced  upon  them  by 
contiguous  peoples  bent  upon  stripping  them  of  their 
"Isle  of  isles,"  and  the  grain  and  vintage  thereof. 
Then  followed  bribery  by  foreigners  of  groups  of 
Sicilians ;  then  bloody  reprisals  that  ensue  upon 
consanguine  duplicity ;  and  then  individual  inter- 
pretation and  expression  of  organic  law,  with  the  in- 
digenous bandit  letting  his  brother's  blood  for  less 
than  the  price  of  a  fat  steer. 

So,  alas !  runs  human  history ;  so,  in  determining 
the  psychology  of  a  given  subject  in  the  commission 
of  a  given  crime,  it  is  frequently  cardinal  to  trace 
the  atavistic  pressure  germane  in  the  deed;  and  so, 
in  appreciable  measure,  all  of  human  action  harks 
to   yesteryears. 

Germans  started  out  by  butchering  the  dead  of  the 
legions  of  Varus;  just  killing  didn't  satiate  their 
blood-lust,  and  they  still  planned  butchery  in  1914 
— women  and  babes  included. 

Frenchmen  frothed  to  indiscriminate  murder  in 
reprisals    that   miscarried ;  which   is   to    say :   their 


Psychology  and  the  Criminal  20S 

revolutions  left  millions  of  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  France  with  a  grossly  exaggerated  idea  of  the 
importance  of  the  individual  in  the  mass,  now  ex- 
pressed periodically  in  mercurial  uprisings  engi- 
neered in  the  main  by  the  progeny  of  those  who 
hung  on  Madam  Defarge's  heartless  words,  and 
watched  with  glee  the  fall  of  guillotined  heads. 

Americans  built  to  liberty  as  liberty  never  before 
had  been  framed  and  nailed:  then  they  bade  anti- 
social vandals  come  on  over  and  raze  the  structure 
with  tools  fashioned  for  all  forms  of  license.  They 
came,  they  used  the  tools,  they  are  using  them,  and 
they  will  get  the  job  done  unless  Americans  come 
out  of  it  and  postpone  their  social  siesta. 

By  and  large,  the  bulk  of  America's  criminals  are 
the  natural  offspring  of  the  natural  foes  of  freedom 
as  the  forefathers  sensed  freedom.  Instinct  is  far 
more  tenacious  than  anything  with  which  it  may  be 
challenged ;  hence  it  is  that  a  bulging  minority  of 
the  polyglot  of  the  mass  on  continental  American 
soil  seethe,  and  plan,  and  execute,  even  kill,  to  the  end 
that  they  may  establish  a  social  order  diametrically 
opposed  to  constitutional  diction.  What  is  more, 
openly-avowed  efforts  to  change  the  national  course 
are  the  least  fateful.  Basic  danger  resides  in  the 
insidious  undertow :  in  that  which  is  given  no  voice, 
yet  whicli  is  wormed  patiently,  indefatigably,  to  the 
foundations  of  American  institutions. 

Therefore,    when    you    have    an    American-bred 


204  Criminal  Types 

criminal,  you  usually  have  one,  as  it  were,  out  of 
Pandora's  box;  one  to  whose  ancestry  and  whose 
natural  instincts  and  predilections  because  of  tliat 
ancestry,  and  to  whose  bringing-up  you  needs  must 
possess  the  master-key,  else  betimes  surely  miss  un- 
derl3'ing  motives. 

Unquestionable  observation  and  experiment  declare 
for  this  guiding  principle:  in  out-breeding  of  hu- 
mans, good  traits  of  character,  from  either  side, 
may,  or  may  not,  issue ;  whereas  bad  instincts  nearly 
always  carry  in  emphasis  from  both  sides.  Hence, 
a  country  that  recruits  its  citizenship  from  the  four 
comers  of  earth,  must,  if  it  is  to  endure  and  persist 
for  human  progress,  select  of  foreign-born  units 
strictly  on  the  basis  of  quahty.  Never  mind  either 
calculus  or  the  alphabet;  encourage  God-fearing, 
law-abiding,  hard-working  young  men  and  women 
who  want  to  root  in  American  soil,  to  do  so.  Then 
bar  every  individual  who  cannot  present  clean  bills 
of  health  and  social  character.  Bar  him,  essentially, 
her,  at  the  port  of  egress. 

Fundamentally,  the  immigration  question  is  no 
more  complex,  in  so  far  as  the  only  rational  course 
for  the  United  States  to  pursue  is  concerned,  than 
is  breeding  of  prize  cattle;  it  is  this:  eliminate  all 
but  good-mannered  producers  who  transmit  reliably 
to  tlie  best  qualities  of  their  breed. 

Such  had  not  to  be  force-fed  of  American  pa- 
triotism.    They  absorbed  it,  out  of  the  very  Ameri- 


Psychology  and  the  Criminal  205 

can  air  they  breathed,  and  they  will  continue  to  do 
so.  Laboring  over  doubtfuls  and  undesirables  is 
mostly  waste  of  ammunition,  in  so  far  as  the  intrinsic 
aim  of  the  labor  is  concerned.  There  is  no  moral 
obligation  upon  America  to  poison  her  blood-lines ; 
quite  to  the  contrary. 

Give  good  immigrants  cheer,  then  place  them  where 
making  and  owning  their  own  nests  will  engage  them, 
and  they  will  do  the  rest.  They  may  continue  to 
roll  their  R's,  or  to  sibilate  their  S's;  also,  they  will 
soon  learn  to  reverence  the  basic  traditions  of  the 
American  flag. 

Since  criminals  will  always  be  with  us  for  the  same 
reason  that  all-seeing  Nature  revokes  in  the  matter 
of  the  quality  of  a  certain  percentage  of  her  seed- 
lings, humane  man  needs  must  make  the  best  of  the 
criminal;  but  the  humane  best  does  not  mean  that 
criminals  shall  be  encouraged  to  breed  with  their 
kind,  certainly  not  with  standard  stock ;  and  it 
does  not  postulate  waste  of  time  and  substance  in 
impossible  attempts  to  carry  weaklings  beyond  their 
incurable  congenital  limitations. 

'Twere  futile,  for  instance,  to  expect  of  the  scram- 
bled  brain  of  an  epileptic  moron,  that  it  shall  ever 
function  far  above  the  zero  mark  of  either  mental  or 
bodily  control  and  service. 

In  the  province  of  the  good  God,  He  has  suffered 
man  to  make  himself  over  from  the  originally  perfect 
model,   into    the   being  who    leans,    and    limps,    and 


206  Criminal  Types 

stumbles.  With  that  which  has  come  to  be  what 
might  be  called  the  cosmic  metabolism  of  the  human 
body,  germane  in  international  out-breeding,  the 
Creator  probably  docs  not  concern  Himself.  If  man 
would  pace  his  paces  toward  the  "Wassermann  test," 
that  likely  is  distinctively  his  material  business. 
The  Father  of  all  set  the  true  pace  in  stone-struck 
precepts.  Man  read,  passed  on  to  dives,  pollution, 
and  deviltry,  and — pays ! 

Macdonwalds  pay  out  of  purses  the  strings  of 
which  are  tightly  drawn  to  self -centered  disservice. 
In  the  end,  they  greet  no  friend,  and  eat  at  hearts 
bled  white  of  capacity  for  enjoyment.  To  such, 
Solon  might  well  have  exclaimed,  "Boast  not  of  hap- 
piness until  you  reach  the  last  day  of  your  lives  !'* 

Then  we  have  natural  nomads  of  this,  that,  or 
complex  persuasion,  who  are  patly  named  "globe- 
trotters" in  the  parlance  of  the  period;  then  given 
over  to  pursuit  of  surface  pleasures  and  the  jug- 
gling of  baubles,  while  lending  but  casual  weight  to 
the  kind  of  coinage  they  coin,  and  next  to  none  at  all 
to  custodial  considerations  that  should  obtain  as  be- 
tween the  wealthy  and  the  masses  who  make  wealth. 
Humans  so  driven  usually  pay  out  of  tingling  nerves, 
souls  of  unrest  that  fight  a  constantly  emphasized 
ennui,  a  conscience  never  four-squared  to  challeng- 
ing duty,  and  a  juiceless  old  age,  against  which 
they  have  stored  no  pleasures  of  the  mind.  Indi- 
viduals of  the  stripe  take  naturally,  as  a   rule,  to 


Psychology  and  the  Criminal  207 

such  as  sporting  pugs  and  parasites,  since  above  all 
else  they  must  be  amused  out  of  the  ordinary  in 
order  to  forget  for  a  spell. 

Down  grade  a  bit  farther  one  meets  up  with  the 
money-mad  cheat.  His  specialty  is  to  roll  a  dollar 
and  have  it  lap  up  unearned  increment  that  would 
have  shamed  Shakespeare's  capital  usurer,  had  he 
been  ten  times  the  immovable  counterfeit  Bassanio 
proclaimed  liim.  No  matter  that  the  rolling  must 
ultimately  give  going  business  a  black  eye  through 
flattening  out  the  bulk  of  the  nation's  spenders,  just 
so  the  comeback  coincides  with  the  intent.  The  in- 
tent is  to  filch  by  financial  legerdemain  from  a  peo- 
ple that  of  which  their  forebears  were  deprived!  from 
behind  one  or  another  form  of  barricade.  This  slave 
of  the  gilded  idol  will  likely  smack  of  the  smattering 
of  a  cheap  culture,  loll  about  in  exclusive  clubs,  feed 
on  the  fawning  of  smaller  fry  of  his  markings  who 
murder  sleep,  even  supplicate  for  shiftless  souls ;  still, 
he  is  instinctively  one  of  the  meanest  of  moral  crooks 
whose  kinks  of  character  shut  him  out  alike  from  the 
meaning  of  life  and  death.  However  he  may  read 
mundane  law,  or  have  it  read,  he  is  a  spiritual  dud. 
As  such,  he  will  pay  when  the  Maker  unmasks  him ; 
not  here  below,  since  Baal  has  him  thrown  and  roped. 

The  multiform  and  multifarious  sporting  parasite 
ranges  from  "Rastus"  who  rings  in  with  the  rollers 
of  "loaded  bones,"  to  the  professional  promoter  of 
prize  fights :  that  specious,  cane-dangling,  manicured 


208  Criminal  Types 

maii-that-wont-work,  who  deals  in  degeneracy.  Not 
so  long  ago,  he  had  to  sneak  through  alleys,  or  up 
to  sky  lofts  in  order  to  display  his  devilish  wares  to 
a  few  score  of  attendants  who  couldn't  shut  out  the 
image  of  the  raiding  "cop."  To-day,  this  derailer 
of  decency  drives  his  stakes  in  the  heart  of  a  crowded 
community  and  hales  reverend  seigniors  to  blood- 
soaked  canvas.  Moreover,  mothers  flock  to  bestial 
exhibitions  that  imbue  lads  with  values  utterly  false, 
mark  them  more  brutally  than  bronchos  are  branded 
in  the  corral,  and  speed  them  to  useless  lives,  com- 
monly garnished  with  the  unspeakable.  So  much  as 
a  syllable  of  defense  in  Holy  Writ  is  not  to  be  found 
of  the  drone-sport ;  and  so  much  as  a  staunch  syl- 
lable cannot  be  advanced  by  him  as  to  why  he  should 
be  suffered  to  cross  the  mental,  moral,  and  ph3'sical 
well-being  of  unfolding  lads  and  lassies.  Down  deep 
in  his  soul,  this  all-pervasive  faker  pays  out  of 
knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the  grand  majority  of 
his  fellows  size  liim  to  his  intrinsic  worth :  bar  him 
where  self-respect  moves  with  its  eyes  on  the 
stars. 

But  another  step  down  in  natural  sequence  reaches 
to  him  who  makes  no  bones  about  being  an  out-and- 
out  thug.  In  his  mental  purview,  man  was  fisted  and 
framed  to  no  other  purpose  than  for  individual 
selection  agreeably  with  his  brawn  and  bent.  Let 
them  that  will  strike  indirectly  with  such  as  statutes 
that   hamstring  equitable  exchange,   or  with  long- 


Psychology  and  the  Criminal  209 

distance  law  that  licks  the  leaner  purse.  Boiled 
to  the  bone,  force  is  all  one  in  principle,  so  why  don 
kid  gloves  in  doing  your  bit  for  yourself?  Why  not 
go  after  what  you  want  with  the  like  of  the  mailed 
fist,  and  let  it  go  at  that?  Don't  a  lot  of  so-called 
"highbrows"  do  the  same  and  go  to  the  head  of  the 
social  class?  "And  say!"  if  there's  essential  differ- 
ence between  the  moral  crook  who  cranks  for  ill- 
gotten  gain  under  undue  process  of  law  and  legis- 
lation— and  the  "guy"  who  greets  him  with  a  gas 
pipe,  spite  of  the  "finest"  and  four  walls  that 
threaten,  upon  which  of  the  two,  in  the  final  anal- 
ysis, rests  the  burden  of  justification?  Of  course 
all  of  such  trimming  will  be  out  of  the  twisted  brain 
of  the  crook-thug  who  elects  to  be  and  remain  a 
crook-thug;  and  of  course,  in  flouting  the  finer  sen- 
sibilities, he  pays  in  missing  the  fulness  of  life  they 
alone   can   round   out. 

So  one  might  go  on  to  the  end  of  the  chapter  in 
citation  of  primary  motives  for  the  commission  of 
crime  in  America;  but  sufficient  of  data  is  offered 
to  emphasize  this  crucial  and  concrete  fact:  more 
than  the  criminal  of  any  other  nationality,  the 
American-m^de  criminal  is  a  composite.  He  is, 
necessarily,  because  he  draws  on  many  more  racial 
strains  than  does  the  lawbreaker  of  any  other  land. 
His  blood  commonly  courses  to  instincts,  sometime 
conflicting  as  between  the  good  and  the  bad,  but  by 
the  very  fact  of  his  cashing  in  for  a  criminal  career, 


210  Criminal  Types 

his  pulse  beats  insistently  to  negative  strains  that 
nag  him  into  the  choice  he  makes. 

However,  choice  for  a  life  of  crime  would  not  be 
made  so  lightly  in  America,  could  the  criminal  not 
bank  there  on  odds  much  heavier  in  his  favor  than 
like  odds  offered  him  in  any  other  country ;  basic 
odds  substantially  put  in  these  four  points:  (1)  The 
direct  and  indirect  bids  for  him  are  the  most  common, 
persistent,  and  inviting.  (2)  His  chances  to  get 
away  with  his  loot  and  to  convert  it  into  cash,  are 
by  far  the  greatest.  (3)  If  caught  and  corralled 
— a  great  big  "if" — he  knows  that  as  to  the  meat 
of  the  sentences  to  most  of  America's  prisons,  the 
hands  of  the  local  authorities  are  tied;  tied  in  the 
matters  of  the  essentials  of  just  and  necessary  de- 
terrence obedient  to  penal  predicates  and  prosecu- 
tion of  educative  measures  that  needs  must  function 
for  consecrated  endeavor,  else  miss  the  reformative 
mark.  (4)  Public  opinion  relative  to  the  mounting 
menace  of  the  criminal  is  "neither  fish,  flesh,  nor 
good  red  herring";  it  just  muddles  along,  steered 
by  meddlesome  cults,  most  of  the  members  of  which 
toss  about  rudderless  on  seas,  the  shoals  of  which 
they  Ho  not  make  serious  effort  either  to  chart  or 
avoid.  Nevertheless,  they  hesitate  not  to  employ 
the  axe,  or,  more  destructively,  praise  that  damns. 
Needless  to  add,  your  Simon-pure  purse-packer  is 
the  meanest  of  subterranean  detractors  and  bunco- 
steerers.     He  it  is  who  packs  his  purse  indirectly 


PsycJwlogy  and  the  Criminal  211 

through  playing  down  to  the  instinctive  reactions  of 
criminal  rounders. 

Coming  down  to  the  psychology  of  the  average 
felon,  general  statement  must  be  confined  to  motives 
by  which,  in  relative  sense,  the  best  of  men  are  driven. 
Contrariwise,  the  deviated  criminal  is  a  grossly  over- 
drawn type  of  the  genus  homo.  By  and  large,  he 
manifests  crassly  that  which  his  bertter-equipped 
brother  spurns  or  inhibits. 

Manifestations  reach  to  different  roots.  Alger- 
non was  checked  off  before  he  was  bom  by  way  of 
a  sexually-perverted  instinct,  or  in  an  extraordin- 
ary mating  hunger  that  marks  him  for  bestial  busi- 
ness, unless  he  is  most  carefully  brought-up.  Bernard 
harks  back  to  a  line  of  moral  crooks,  kept  out  of 
jail  by  legal  see-saw.  "Butch  the  Bull,"  scion  of 
a  father  who  made  a  living  spilling  the  blood  of  his 
kind,  and  of  a  mother  who  was  proud  of  the  father, 
takes  as  naturally  to  heartless  thuggery  and  its 
more  pernicious  by-products,  as  does  a  buck  to 
butting.  Each  tells  that  blood  tells,  in  that  his 
selection  of  criminous  groove  will  be  governed 
largely  by  his  instinctive  predilections.  Criminal 
man  is  usually  but  an  enlarged  portrait  of  the  boy 
playmate.  Hence,  your  natural  sexual,  thief,  or 
thug,  will  inevitably  begin  to  so  unfold  at  a  game 
of  marbles. 

At  a  given  moment,  sentient  man  is  the  sum  of 
the  manner  in  which  he  had  fought  known  congenital 


212  Criminal  Types 

predisposition  to  express  unsocial  conduct,  and  the 
total  of  objective  influence  exerted  upon  him.  For 
that  which  he  laclcs  in  character  on  a  certain  day, 
date  and  year,  much  betimes  may  be  discounted  as 
the  quite  natural  result  of  cumulative  circumstance, 
all  of  it  spiteful ;  but  that  fact  does  not  alter  the 
basic  truth  stated. 

And  so,  since  America  went  out  of  her  way  to 
ransack  the  discard  of  nations  for  her  prospective 
citizens ;  and  since  criminals  and  potential  criminals 
of  each  national  group  bore  with  them  to  America 
that  by  which  they  were  peculiarly  motivated  to 
criminality  in  their  native  lands ;  and  since  America 
has  been  out-breeding  from  such  stock  for  over  two 
centuries ;  and  since  America  sneezes  at  leaping 
license  as  no  other  nation  sneezes  at  license:  it  fol- 
lows perforce  that  the  psychology  of  the  average 
American  criminal  will  be  singularly  complex. 
Atavism  kneels  neither  to  brain  nor  brawn.  It  will 
not  be  denied ;  not  even  the  Mendelian  law  holds  it 
wholly  safe.  Deviations  that  defy  analysis  will  crop 
out.  The  crack  in  character  apparently  closes  and 
merges,  then  opens  wide  after  the  lapse  certainly 
of  six  generations,  probably  from  way  back  of 
any  genealogical  tree  yet  branched  by  human 
brains. 

Certain  attributes  are  close  to  common  to  all 
of  true  criminals.  Their  impressionability  will 
be   below    par;    their    nervous    sensibilities    ox-like, 


Psycliology  and  the  Criminal  213 

leaving  them  comparatively  indifferent  to  pain  they 
inflict  or  by  which  they  are  afflicted ;  expressions  of 
their  sexual  desires  are  gross,  frequently  perverted, 
and  not  uncommonly  masochistic  in  one  or  another 
degree  and  form;  their  mental  concepts  are  pro- 
nouncedly ego-centric ;  their  spirituality  is  such  as 
clings  to  the  main  chance  just  because  it  is  the  main 
chance,  not  because  they  treasure  it  as  the  fount 
on  which  to  draw  for  inspiration  to  better  things ; 
their  word  at  the  best  is  but  a  lame  duck ;  their 
loyalty  is  huckstered  from  bargain  counters;  and 
their  honesty  of  purpose  is  adumbrated  in  the  fact 
that  th^  stand  many  times  convicted  felons,  albeit 
many  hands  and  hearts  had  again  and  again  tried  to 
steer  them  clear  of  criminal  cesspools,  beginning  with 
their  tempest-tossed  parents,  and  ending  with  the 
spurned  "screw" :  but  the  mastering  motive  for  their 
crimes  will  usually  be  singular  to  the  individual,  and 
trace  to  forebears  who  ran  their  course  on  foreign 
soil.  Correctional  institutions  contain  few  of  the 
offspring  of   Pilgrim   stock. 

At  any  rate,  the  singular-composite  psychology, 
calls  for  the  singular-composite  psychologist;  mean- 
ing that  he  must  possess  singular  skill  with  which  to 
unfold  the  cardinal  flaws  that  cause  the  high  crim- 
inal blood  pressure  of  his  subject,  as  well  as  ability 
to  uncover  the  sum  total  of  objective  impulsion  that 
adds  to  that  pressure.  Shall  he  allow  a  fetich  to 
sidetrack    him    from    comprehensive    research,    and 


214  Crimmal  Types 

logical  recommendations  based  on  such  research,  he 
will  surely  foozle. 

Because  the  two-fold  chore  involved  has  been  in- 
trusted mainly  to  mental  examiners  obsessed  with 
the  near  mania  to  make  the  purely  psychological 
case,  regardless  of  the  comprehensive  case,  it  is  that 
the  very  word  "psychology"  is  looked  at  askance 
by  many  wHo  keenly  want  to  see  whole. 

Searching  the  psychology  of  a  given  criminal  nec- 
essarily involves  digging  to  understructure  from 
which  he  is  impelled  to  illegal  acts ;  particularly,  to 
the  subconscious  impulses  that  sway  him ;  but  having 
taken  cognizance  of  those  impulses,  remedial  meas- 
ures must  further  prescribe  for  him  agreeably  with 
the  role  he  will  be  best  fitted  to  assume  as  a  re- 
claimed social  unit. 

Palpably,  therefore,  his  all-around  schooling  must 
be  individual  to  a  degree,  yet  comprehend  the  social 
exactions  that  will  be  upon  him  in  free  life. 

No  matter  what  the  prison  regime  under  which  the 
subject  is  schooled,  it  should  function  substantially 
as  follows: 

(a)  As  a  distinctive  plant,  for  a  certain  grade  of 
offenders,  to  a  distinctive  end,  as  for  example:  for 
distinctively  occupational  results,  if  it  is  a  trades- 
scholastic-military  house  of  correction;  and  for  dis- 
tinctively agricultural  results  if  it  is  an  agricultural 
plant.  Little,  if  any,  crossing  of  the  concentrated 
idea  should  obtain. 


Psychology  and  the  Criminal  215 

(b)  The  schooling  should  be  intensive  under  rea- 
sonable averages  calculated  to  assure  evenly-pro- 
gressive skill. 

(c)  The  every-day  curriculum  should  be  inclusive 
of  the  needs  of  the  last  unit  of  the  mass.  Segre- 
gated-group  treatment,  other  than  for  positive  devi- 
ates, subtracts  from,  much  more  than  it  yields  to, 
in  a  general  scheme  of  schooling  that  is  rationally 
prescribed  and  prosecuted.  The  positively  abnor- 
mal should  be  sent,  originally,  to  institutions  essen- 
tially fitted  for  their  care  and  repair. 

(d)  Tlie  tramp  mind  should  not  be  permitted  to 
tramp.  In  accordance  with  all  of  visible  signs,  plus 
those  brought  to  the  surface  by  means  of  mental 
research,  the  subject  should  be  harnessed  to  the 
task  of  doing  some  one  thing  well.  The  greater  the 
task,  the  more  binding  the  reason  to  so  harness  him. 
The  average  prisoner  is  the  victim  of  the  desire 
for  variety  of  activities ;  he  has  a  very  decided  dis- 
taste for  buckling  to  and  staying  buckled.  Hence, 
the  first  step  in  his  social  reclamation  must  be  to 
break  him  of  the  mental  habit  that  impels  him  to 
spread  himself  uselessly.  He  "gathered  no  moss" 
because  he  was  "a  rolling  stone."  Get  that  into  his 
head  from  his  initial  institutional  pace. 

(e)  Common  belief  has  it  that  a  compulsory  meas- 
ure should  be  the  last  straw  at  which  to  grasp. 
Diametrically  to  the  contrary,  it  comes  about  in 
legions  of  cases  that  compulsion,  even  drastic  com- 


216  Crimmal  Types 

pulsion,  is  the  only  weapon  to  hand  that  will  make 
any  impression  on  certain  of  self-willed,  self-cen- 
tered, singularly  refractory  prisoners,  who  had  been 
indulged  in  mock  heroics,  and  who  devise  deviltry 
even  while  they  are  changing  from  citizen  to  prison 
garb.  At  once  is  the  time  to  read  to  such  their 
prison  lesson,  predicated  in  penal  law.  If  it  can  be 
done  through  kindly  admonition  that  carries  from 
the  heart  of  the  mentor,  by  all  manner  of  means  do 
it  so ;  but  don't  commonize  the  mentoring  in  the  face 
of  repetition  of  serious  infraction  of  reformative 
measures  by  your  man,  else  he  will  spurn  both  men- 
tor and  measure;  this,  the  rule.  It  remains  for  the 
mentor  to  spot  and  allow  for  the  exceptional  case, 
such,  for  instance,  as  one  whereof  the  offender  had 
known  little  other  than  kicks  and  cuffs  out  of  life. 
With  such  an  one,  persevere  with  the  soft  pedal 
much  as  the  Christ  would  have  persevered  in  like 
circumstance. 

The  point  is  that  much  too  much  of  "sob-sister" 
stuff  has  been  written  and  spoken  about  compulsion 
as  applied  to  the  instinctive  and  habitual  social 
wolf;  about  him  who  began  life  by  abusing  his 
mother,  and  who  will  probably  end  up  in  the  electric 
chair,  unless  timely  action  is  taken  to  disabuse  his 
mind  of  the  notion  that  his  individual  will  is  law. 

Isn't  it  true  that  most  of  the  worth-while  things 
men  have  done,  have  been  done  against  grain  that 
howled  betimes  for  easier  going?     If  it  is  true,  then 


Psycliology  and  the  Criminal  217 

have  done  with  petty  piffle  about  compelling  repeat- 
ing felons,  who  just  won't  have  it  any  other  way; 
felons  who  figure  on  foraging  on  society  by  its 
leave,  else  shooting  to  kill.  In  any  event,  plan  for 
notable  preparedness  throughout  the  prison  cur- 
riculum, then  hold  the  prisoner,  under  his  commit- 
ment paper,  until  he  shall  have  made  at  least  a 
mighty  good  try  for  himself  in  agreement  with  the 
plan. 

(f)  The  "plan"  should  refuse,  utterly,  the  going 
fad  and  fallacy  to  the  effect  that  the  prison  regime 
is  best  which  is  productive  of  the  least  friction ;  that 
measures  which  please,  amuse,  and  keep  recidivistic 
felons  good  natured,  are  the  ones  to  be  sought. 

True  enough,  the  prison  scheme  that  produces 
undue  friction  is  at  once  suspect.  Better,  for  ex- 
ample, a  bit  too  much  than  not  enough  of  amuse- 
ment and  recreation,  so  that  they  are  free  of  the 
prurient  and  the  pug;  but  neither  should  cross  edu- 
cative measures,  and  both  should  merge,  as  nearly 
as  possible,  as  both  are  merged  under  a  factory 
schedule  in  free  life.  Essentially,  play  and  amuse- 
ment should  be  held  strictly  subordinate  to  the  car- 
dinal aim,  which  is  to  make  skilled  unskilled  hands 
and  brains.  The  responsibility  for  undue  friction 
that  issues  out  of  execution  in  line  with  that  aim 
should  be  met  squarely  with  remedial  measures, 
whether  they  hit  inmate  or  officer.  Reform  work  is 
that  last  of  the  world's   work  that   should  be   re- 


218  Criminal  Types 

tarded  by  the  man  who  does  not  take  seriously  a 
high  calling. 

Sonic  sniff  at  the  "high  calling" ;  albeit  endeavor 
cannot  be  at  once  more  scientific  and  awesome  than 
raveling  the  mental  twists,  and  remodelling  tiie  faulty 
clay  of  humans.  Because  that  mighty  task  is  turned 
over  in  so  many  instances  to  those  whose  contribu- 
tions to  correction  consist  in  nothing  more  tangible 
than  cross-cutting  saws  they  tooth  about  it,  explains 
in  appreciable  degree  America's  recidivistic  crim- 
inals, who  hold  all  records  for  flippant  lawbreaking. 

(g)  Gone  about  in  the  right  way,  it  is  positively 
helpful  to  appraise  lawbreakers  for  their  mental, 
moral,  and  physical  restrictions,  each  one  of  which 
contributes  to  the  other.  Particularly  as  to  border- 
line mental  deviates,  their  prospective  social  service 
will  quite  reliably  reside  in  the  manner  in  which  anal- 
ysis is  made  of  their  handicaps  provided :  very  clear 
distinction  is  declared  as  between  their  congenital 
limitations,  and  encumbrances  of  environment  and 
bringing-up  by  which  their  social  sense  and  social 
development  were  arrested,  while  they  were  being 
clamped  to  anti-social  habits  of  thought  and  action. 
And  provided:  negation  is  not  nurtured  in  order  to 
strike  an  average,  or  to  confirm  questionable  theory. 

Brash  statement  either  way,  relative  to  the  recla- 
mation of  the  average  felon,  should  be  witliheld ;  yet 
close  to  a  life  study  of,  and  research  pertaining  to, 
imprisoned  felons,  while  brushing  elbows  with  them 


Psychology  ami  the  Criminal  219 

as  a  State  agent  in  the  most  intimate  way,  emboldens 
the  writer  unequivocally  to  assert :  aside  from  the 
natural  effect  upon  him  of  cumulative  impositions,  all 
of  them  pronouncedly  unfortuitous,  and  not  one  of 
them  ameliorated  by  so  much  as  a  semblance  of 
virile  countervailing  influence,  the  average  nearly- 
normal  felon  issues  just  as  millions  more  of  his 
mind  and  matter  would  have  issued,  had  they,  like 
the  offender,  been  practically  dispossessed  of  good 
suggestion,  good  example,  and  good  training  and 
teaching. 

As  to  a  lad's  basic  ability,  even  as  to  his  intrinsic 
worth,  what  he  had  done  and  left  undone,  what  he 
wants  to  do  and  leave  undone,  commonly  relates  at 
base  to  that  which  he  had  had  not  a  ghost  of  a  chance 
to  do  or  ^eave  undone.  He  can't  have  grasped 
mentally  that  which  had  been  kept  foreign  to  his 
mind;  he  can't  have  taken  on  even  a  tliin  veneer 
of  morality  while  he  was  being  "used"  in  the  vilest  of 
sexual  dens ;  he  can't  have  absorbed  meekness  and 
mercy  out  of  having  been  elbowed  into  the  company 
of  self-determining  social  pariahs ;  fresh  from  the 
cruelly  gross  gruelling  to  which  he  has  been  sub- 
jected, he  can't  be  expected  to  bank  on  the  helping 
hand  of  Almighty  God,  say  naught  of  the  offices  of 
mercenary  man,  whom  he  has  come  to  envisage  as  a 
common  despoiler;  he  won't  sprout  and  grow  to 
manly  stature  under  corrective  schooling,  other  than 
that  which  sharply  reverses  his  every  conception  of 


220  Criminal  Types 

individual  duty  registered  on  his  brain ;  and  he  won't 
blow  at  all  to  the  light  of  living  except  by  gradual 
and  well-marked  stages,  much,  in  the  matter  of  time, 
as  he  was  dwarfed  in  black  holes  by  the  powers  of 
darkness.  Still,  he  is  of  the  stuff  of  which  the  Al- 
mighty made  Adam.  Moreover,  the  Eternal  Father 
won't  shrive  of  blame  the  man  who  dons  the  esoteric 
mantle,  takes  a  casual  peek  at  him,  smugly  pro- 
nounce him  an  "incorrigible  moron,"  and  passes  him 
up  to  perdition. 

Going  over  the  days  of  his  youth  and  young  man- 
hood, recalling  the  grave,  sometime  gross  lapses 
chargeable  to  him,  spite  of  his  best  of  environment 
and  bringing-up,  what  call  has  anyone  lightly  to 
damn  a  lad,  either  mentally  or  morally,  whose  lot  it 
had  been  to  be  deprived  of  direction,  while  he  was 
being  shouldered  into  moral  gutters.?  Why  insist 
with  so  much  of  balderdash  about  the  predestined 
criminal,  and  at  the  same  time  order  social  usages 
and  the  execution  of  penal  law  to  his  hand;  then, 
when  he  falls  plumb  backward,  so  order  prison 
regimes  that  they  do  with  and  for  him  just  those 
things  they  ought  not  do,  and  leave  either  undone 
or  half-baked,  just  those  things  they  ought  to  do? 

Why,  for  example,  in  response  to  the  criminal's 
oblique  instincts  and  intentions,  feature  such  as 
bestial  pugilism,  and  flatten  out  such  as  trades  teach- 
ing until  it  stands  but  a  loose- jointed  skeleton  of 
what  it  must  be  to  be  effective?    Why  place  embargo 


Psychology  and  the  Criminal  221 

on  preparedness  to  earn  an  honest  living,  and  at  the 
same  time  make  unblushing  bid  for  the  mui^derous 
parasite?  Why  put  a  premium  on  activities,  pursu- 
ing which  in  free  life  first  made  a  brutal  drone-sport 
of  a  lad,  then  headed  him  for  bolts  and  bars? 

All-sufficient  of  wholesome  play  and  amusement 
the  imprisoned  should  have;  but  the  moment  either 
engages  prisoners  to  the  extent  of  crowding  out  of 
their  minds  the  essential  exaction  upon  them  to  con- 
centrate for  correction  of  that  responsible  for  their 
plight  as  prisoners,  that  moment  it  becomes  per- 
niciously non-reformative.  Furthermore,  prison 
play  should  be  confined  to  the  periods  set  aside  for 
play  for  all.  Notliing  of  the  kind  could  be  more 
subversive  of  reformation,  than  by-play  by  groups, 
the  howling  by  members  of  which  is  plainly  heard 
by  the  general  population,  supposed  to  be  fully  en- 
gaged at  work  in  the  shops  and  departments  of  the 
place.  Aside  from  bad  feeling  engendered  through 
playing  favorities  at  play,  the  inevitable  effect  of 
the  by-play  is  to  kill  concentration  through  switch- 
ing the  minds  to  play  of  those  who  are  at  work. 

At  gymnastic  exercise  for  special  groups,  noise 
should  be  held  within  bounds,  exercises  prescribed 
for  the  purpose  in  hand  rather  than  to  amuse,  and 
the  minds  of  the  lads  fashioned  for  their  all-around 
improvement,  instead  of  to  the  idea  that  the  exer- 
cises are  planned  from  no  higher  purpose  than 
pleasurable  relaxation. 


222  Crimmal  Types 

There  will  be  isolated  instances  whereof  just  pure 
play  for  a  time  will  be  best ;  but  such  cases  can  and 
should  be  handled  judiciously  during  the  periods  set 
aside  for  play. 

Essentially  and  without  reserve,  manifestations  at 
play  that  make  for  the  brute  should  be  sharply 
checked.  They  are  of  the  devil's  own,  imposed  upon 
up-coming  lads  through  the  medium  of  sporting 
mongers. 

Even  in  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States, 
where  lads  must  be  trained  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves with  the  last  device  of  individual  power,  justi- 
fication rests  with  the  military  authorities  for  bru- 
tality inseparable  with  fistic  encounters  and  wres- 
tling matches.  There  are  better  ways  by  which  to 
coordinate  eye,  brain  and  brawn  for  offense  and  de- 
fense, either  in  peace  or  for  war;  ways  that  fit  the 
individual  weapon ;  ways  that  confine  the  thoughts  of 
the  unit  to  use  of  that  weapon  for  war;  and  ways 
that  do  not  inoculate  with  the  itch  to  knock  some- 
one's "block"  ofF. 

Such  as  fisticuffs  has  been  employed  by  Uncle  Sam 
to  aid  in  recruiting,  then  purely  for  the  amusement 
of  the  onlookers.  No  nonnal  man  does  or  could 
claim  to  be  edified  by  seeing  human  blood  spilled, 
or  by  agonizing  with  the  lad  rolling  in  agony. 
Again,  Uncle  Sam*s  soldiers  and  sailors  are  the  pick 
of  the  nation.  In  bulk  they  can  be  trusted  to  avoid 
the  deadline  of  intrinsically  brutal  manifestations, 


Psycliology  and  the  Criminal  223 

With  thousands  of  convicted  felons,  as  with  the 
ninety-and-nine  of  habitual  criminals,  it  is  essen- 
tially different.  They  are  brutal  by  nature.  Many 
are  confined  for  committing  the  most  ruthless  of 
brutality.  Therefore,  such  as  prize  fights,  put  on 
in  a  correctional  plant,  are  utterly  indefensible. 
Far  from  being  fed  up  with  bestial  exhibitions  (?) 
such  lads  need  above  all  to  be  weaned  from  instinct 
that  demands  such  form  of  amusement. 

Amusement !  Out  of  seeing  a  battered  lad  laced 
into  submission!  Could  anything  be  farther  from 
that  for  which  the  average  taxpayer  means  his  money 
shall  be  expended?  And  what  is  all  the  fuss  about 
at  the  Washington  Peace  Conference,  if  not  to  put 
international  handcuffs  on  that  which  is  but  an  en- 
largement of  the  doubled  fist? 

Men  who  like  to  see  the  beast  in  man  exploited, 
have  been  primarily  chargeable  for  all  of  war.  When 
they  succeed  in  passing  on  the  virus  of  bestiality  to 
American  mothers,  it  is  high  time  to  call  the  turn 
on  them,  and  to  interpose  unbendingly  where  they 
attempt  to  prescribe. 

Rational  discipline  is  as  the  spine  of  any 
schooling.  Juridic  prison  discipline  differs  from  like 
free-life  practice,  in  that  it  must  presuppose  the 
integrity  of  a  charge  brought  against  an  inmate  by 
a  regularly  appointed  State  agent.  In  such  instance, 
the  burden  of  proof  is  justly  upon  the  alleged  of- 
fender to  establish  his  innocence,  not  upon  the  State 


224  Criminal  Types 

to  assume  it.  This,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
the  strongest  of  motives  decides  offenders  for  denial 
of  guilt.  Not  only  does  the  individual  he  naturally 
come  easy  when  part  of  a  prisoner's  liberty  is  threat- 
ened; but  cumulative  untruth  must  be  searched  out 
of  testimony  motivated  by  a  common  criminal  cam- 
araderie. 

Gulfs  of  criminal  practice  may  separate  different 
grades  of  prisoners;  yet,  when  it  comes  down  to 
incriminating  evidence  of  a  serious  nature  against 
their  fellow  prisoners,  they  usually  fight  shy,  and 
that,  on  occasion,  not  ignobly. 

As  to  different  offenses  that  are  met  with  indiffer- 
ent impositions,  an  inmate  agent  will  clasp  hands  in 
measure  with  the  local  authorities;  but  he  usually 
steers  clear  of  testimony  that  establishes  him  a 
"rat"  informer,  and  very  probably  marks  him  for 
condign  reprisal. 

A  prison  population  is  bound  by  ties  which  the 
hardiest  of  "trusties"  breaks  at  his  grave  peril; 
therefore  when  it  is  told  that  a  junta  of  imprisoned 
felons  is  given  over  inequivocably  to  support  of 
penal  law,  reach  for  the  salt. 

In  the  first  place,  no  set  of  men  have  legal  author- 
ity to  build  to  corrective  procedure  that  runs  counter 
to  the  binding  predicates  of  penal  law. 

Secondly,  no  man  has  call  to  conclude  that  he 
can  devise  safer  checks  upon  the  marauding  crim- 
inal than  are  those  written  into  penal  codes,  out  of 


Psyclwlogy  and  the  Criminal  225 

the  cumulative  judgment  and  experience  of  mankind. 

Nevertheless,  the  single-seeing  and  idiosyncratic 
practically  have  controlled  discipline  in  most  of 
America's  prisons  during  recent  decades.  Besides, 
they  have  specified  for  overdrawn  activities  in 
essence  banal  and  baldly  opposed  to  actual  reforma- 
tive measures,  maimed  in  the  process  to  the  point  of 
practical  disuse. 

Time  was  when  managerical  members  of  institu- 
tional staffs  demanded  that  "up  for  parole"  pris- 
oners shall  have  sustained  saving  trades  and 
scholastic  averages.  Now,  gentlemen  mostly  have 
their  eyes  glued  to  sporting  schedules  and  conduct 
records,  the  one  of  which  commonly  cross  reforma- 
tion; and  the  other  of  which  are  at  no  time  reliable 
guides  on  which  to  base  the  free-life  intentions  of 
intelligent  prisoners. 

The  result  is  hodgepodge  of  cross-matched  correc- 
tion, little  of  which  escapes  knowing  condemnation, 
and  less  of  which  is  strung  to  the  keynote  of  reforma- 
tive harmony. 

The  keynote  of  reformative  harmony  is  struck 
in  a  prison  regime  that  ministers  meticulously  to 
marketable  knowledge  and  skill.  This,  unmoved  by 
the  counter  machinations  of  the  minority  of  the 
mass,  expressed  either  individually  or  collectively; 
indeed,  collective  manifestations  against  the  like  of 
insistence  upon  fairly-won  averages  throughout  the 
system,  should  be  met  at  their  inception  by  the  State 


226  Criminal  Types 

with  power  so  impressive  as  to  make  repetition  of 
such  opposition  highly  improhable.  Failure  thereof 
to  take  up  disciplinary  stitches  in  time,  is  what  ulti- 
mately works  mob  miscliief. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  radical  resistance  to  rational 
measures  seldom  issues  in  a  correctional  plant  that 
is  consistently  dedicated  to  those  measures  under 
an  all-around  square  deal.  Contrariwise,  that  in- 
stitution is  always  ripe  for  disciplinary  loot,  wherein 
disruptive  privileges  and  perquisites  are  heaped  upon 
inmates  who  do  not  earn  them. 

There  is  no  satisfying  such  laggards  with  gra- 
tuitous largesse.  The  more  yielded  to  them,  the 
more  they  demand.  Furthermore,  once  having 
yielded  to  them  way  beyond  that  which  should  have 
been  yielded,  it  takes  years  to  get  back  to  the  nor- 
mal again — if  at  all. 

Basic  reformative  cogs  can  be  slipped  in  a  second 
out  of  purblind  vision  not,  so  to  put  it,  within  the 
focus  of  comprehension:  whereas  readjustment  re- 
solves into  a  long,  hard  pull,  up  hill  all  of  the  way. 
In  one  of  the  writer's  many  talks  with  Mr.  Z.  R. 
Brockway,  relative  to  the  capital  matter  in  ques- 
tion, Mr.  Brockway  let  fall  this  cryptic  conclusion: 
"I've  tried  it  out  every  known  way,  and  I  say: 
dori't  do  the  first  darn-fool  thing." 

In  the  light  of  eventualities,  it  seems  a  great  pity 
that  Mr.  Brockway  should  have  been  held  up  just 
as  he  was  about  to  perfect  balance  of  parts  in  a 


Psychologi/  and  the  Criminal  227 

Work  to  which  he  had  given  the  best  in  him  for  fifty 
years ;  it  does,  because  up  to  the  time  when  he  was 
so  ruthlessly  broken — literally  broken — his  "best" 
was  incomparably  better  than  any  other  man  had 
dared  in  application. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  jNIr.  Brockway's  alleged 
capital  sin  consisted  in  the  fact  that  he  would  not 
j'ield  belief  in  corporal  punishment  as  a  means  of 
"shocking" — as  he  had  it — persistently  refractory 
prisoners  into  at  least  respect  for  the  major  voice. 
Whether  Mr.  Brockway  was  right  or  wrong  in  the 
conviction  to  which  he  clung  to  his  dying  day,  does 
not  call  for  contention  here.  But  it  may  be  noted 
that  certain  forms  of  prison  punishment  that  have 
supplanted  corporal  punishment,  are  infinitely  less 
humane,  and  infinitely  more  destructive  of  the  divin- 
ity in  man,  than  is  an  honest  spanking,  inflicted  in 
a  fatherly  way,  out  of  a  fatherly  heart.  Moreover, 
final  reversal  of  public  opinion  in  the  matter  further 
may  be  noted  in  editorials,  such  as  are  adumbrated 
in  the  following  excerpt  clipped  from  one  of  the 
papers  that  joined  in  the  hue  and  cry  for  "investi- 
gation" of  Mr.  Brockway  and  his  methods,  to  no 
other  purpose  than  to  break  Mr.  Brockway,  and  to 
abolish  corporal  punishment  in  the  correctional 
plants  of  the  State  of  New  York :  "How  then  is 
ruthlessncss  to  be  held  securely  in  check?  Not  by 
making  all  nations  humane,  and  scrupulous,  and 
tender-hearted.     It  is  the  actual,  not  a  millennial 


228  Criminal  Types 

world  with  which  avc  have  to  deal.  It  is  not  conver- 
sion of  evil  men  that  must  be  aimed  at,  but  their  con- 
trol. A  nation  tempted  to  be  bnital  as  Germany 
was,  must  be  given  to  understand  that  the  first  dis- 
play of  barbarism  in  warfare  would  bring  all  other 
civilized  countries  on  its  back.  In  short,  nothing 
but  a  solemn  international  agreement  unitedly  to 
oppose  and  to  punish  the  ruthless  making  of  war  can 
assuredly  prevent  it."  The  underscoring  is  the 
writer's. 

Bear  in  mind  that  a  State  bears  relatively  the 
same  relation  to  the  combined  States  of  the  world, 
as  does  the  unit  of  a  nation  to  the  mass  of  that 
nation ;  in  very  fact,  it  comes  about  in  America  that 
the  State  is  an  enlargement  of  the  international 
unit — thanks  to  the  melting  pot  fallacy;  then 
change  the  wording  of  the  preceding  paragraph  to 
agree  with  the  case  as  put  up  to  America  by  polyg- 
lot pistol-toters  who  show  no  mercy.  And  then  say 
why  it  is  good  to  visit  the  extreme  of  corporal  pun- 
ishment on  a  "barbarous"  nation,  and  bad  to 
"shock"  physically  an  individual  bandit  who  cares 
not  a  wisp  of  straw  about  anything  in  the  way  of 
"punishment"  short  of  physical  pain?  Say  it,  re- 
fusing at  least  the  premise  worn  threadbare  and 
stripped  of  ballast,  to  the  effect  that  the  injured 
sensibilities  of  the  crudest  of  parasities  are  para- 
mount over  the  common  safety  and  progress;  and 
say  it  realizing  that  the  paper  quoted  now  blares 


Psychology  and  the  Criminal  229 

solemn  truth  for  which  it  bitterly  scored  Mr.  Brock- 
way,  who  never  went  so  far  for  pure  repression  as 
that  paper  now  goes. 

The  fundamental  principle  germane  to  the  under- 
scored words  in  the  editorial  excerpt  given  is  pre- 
cisely that  which  is  so  frequently  involved  in  the 
issue  between  the  individual  and  the  State.  In  any 
case,  correction  is  spurious  wliich  does  not  carry 
to  high-grade  skill,  backed  b}'  the  highest  grade  of 
recreation,   amusement,  and  moral  teaching. 

If  mercy  multiplied  can  be  made  to  effect  for  the 
main  object,  that  were  well,  since  "A  man  convinced 
against  his  will  is  (usually)  of  the  same  opinion 
still";  yet,  shall  the  subject  persist  in  making  use 
of  the  soft  pedal  as  a  "soft  thing"  through  which 
to  draw  out  devious,  determined,  long-drawn-out 
devilment,  the  sooner  the  State  stops  his  bullish  rush 
for  the  abyss,  the  sooner  he  will  take  a  flashlight 
photo   of   himself. 

Such,  in  substance,  has  been  the  contention  of 
practical  penologists.  In  line  with  that  contention 
the  pendulum  of  public  opinion  must  swing  back ;  it 
must,  for  the  very  good  reason  that  self-preserva- 
tion leaves  no  other  clioice  to  the  American  people 
or  to  any  other  people.  That  country  limps  to  the 
dogs  which  essays  to  hold  murderous  rounders  in 
check  by  aesthesia.  The  Almighty  fits  the  punish- 
ment to  the  offense.  Man  can  do  no  less  and  endure 
in  the  image  of  his  Maker. 


230  Criminal  Types 

The  first  necessary  step  in  the  regeneration  of  a 
license-mad  world  is  to  put  teeth  into  the  restraint 
of  those  who  seek  to  make  permanent  the  present 
chaotic  social  conditions.  Moreover,  the  movement 
against  the  international  social  marauder  will  neces- 
sarily take  on  international  scope  and  solidarity. 
Pecking  at  him  here  and  there,  driving  him  from 
this  to  that  base  of  operations,  won't  get  the  world 
anywhere  in  coming  up  with  him  who  does  not  balk 
over  indiscriminate  use  of  the  crudest  of  death-deal- 
ing tools  in  determination  to  stand  society  on  its 
head. 

International  control  over  and  isolation  of  the 
red-handed,  are  the  only  weapons  that  will  make  a 
dent  in  them.  Therefore  employ  those  weapons  be- 
fore misled  maulers  of  law  and  order  engage  the 
standing  armies  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  globe. 
Will  they  not?  Maybe  not,  but  they  do,  right 
now,  in  appreciable  measure,  in  several  European 
States;  also,  they  go  right  on  "boring  in"  to  the 
heart  of  things  in  America,  for  which  they  do  not, 
as  a  rule,  get  so  much  as  a  slap  on  their  murderous 
wrists. 

Cardinal  bungling  in  relation  to  present  cosmic 
lawlessness,  resided  in  allowing  Russia  to  be  taken 
by  the  throat  by  a  few  addle-brained  social  hyenas ; 
they  who  use  an  intrinsically  fine-hearted  people  as 
a  foil  for  destructiveness  the  most  heinous  ever 
garnished  by  inliuman  ghouls. 


Psychology  and  the  Criminal  231 

That  Russia  remained  deaf  to  the  pleas  of  states- 
men of  the  stature  of  Baron  Rosen,  then  rushed  to 
loot  and  wholesale  killings,  alone  concerned  Russian 
autonomy.  If  Russia  chose  to  wear  sackcloth  while 
ordering  her  bed  for  terrorism  and  bad  dreams,  that 
was  distinctively  Russia's  affair;  but  the  moment 
she  sought  to  underwrite  propaganda  aimed  at  the 
world's  socjal  structures,  that  moment  the  interna- 
tional screw  should  have  been  turned  on  her.  For 
her  own  salvation  she  should  have  been  brought  to 
an  even  keel,  say  naught  of  the  broil  to  which  Rus- 
sian mongrels  were  bringing  the  international  pot. 

But  why  the  apparent  diversion  from  the  text? 
Why  roam  for  similes  that  seem  so  far  removed  from 
consideration  of  the  psychology  of  American  crim- 
inals? First  off,  nothing  is  distant  by  suggestion 
from  America  farther  than  the  time  required  to 
cable  it  to  America  and  there  spread  it  in  the  public 
press.  As  the  bird  flies  between  the  nearest  points 
of  opposite  shores,  Siberian  Russia  is  but  about 
thirt}^  hours  by  boat  from  Alaska.  Uncle  Sam  is 
cogitating  the  best  means  by  which  to  quicken  the 
life  flow  in  Alaska's  veins.  When  that  flow  is  quick- 
ened, Alaska  will  be  a  convenient,  engaging,  and  com- 
paratively safe  base  from  which  such  as  Russian 
radicals  may  strike  at  and  sieve  into  America. 

Secondl^^  the  psychology  of  such  as  those  di- 
rectly responsible  for  measures  that  leave  Russia 
stripped  of  about  all  but  the  saving  grace  of  a  long- 


232  Criminal  Types 

suffering  God,  is  substantially  the  psychology  of 
habitual  criminals,  place  them  where  you  will.  As  a 
distinct  class  of  humans,  each  is  out  to  get  some- 
thing for  nothing.  With  specious  and  polished 
phrases,  the  one  class  of  educated  plunderers  play 
up  to  the  dumb  avarice  of  ignorant  underdogs. 
The  other  class,  equals  of  their  blood-brothers  in 
hatred  of  biblical  government,  usually  manifest  their 
crooked  curves  in  the  most  direct  way  with  the  indi- 
vidual weapon.  Anarchistic  agitators  seek  to  strike 
through  the  masses  from  center  to  periphery  of  the 
social  circle;  criminals  usually  make  their  forays  in 
pairs  or  packs  from  the  fringes  of  society;  yet  both 
are  impelled  to  anti-social  action  by  the  ever  same 
capital  motive,  which  is  to  get  something  for  noth- 
ing. 

And  so,  no  matter  what  un-American  or  anti- 
American  stripe  he  bears ;  and  no  matter  in  what 
language  he  may  shriek  for  social  disintegration  be- 
cause he  is  of  that  stripe,  America  must  meet  him 
with  a  fist  that  knows  no  relaxation.  He  should  not 
be  allowed  to  land  on  American  soil  until  he  had 
taken  unqualified  oath  to  support  American  institu- 
tions. Thereafter,  upon  the  first  evidence  on  his 
part  of  backsliding  as  regards  that  oath,  he  should 
be  given  his  ticket  of  leave  and  published  to  the 
police  authorities  of  the  world  for  what  he  is,  viz. : 
a  man  without  a  country  who  doesn't  mean  to  merge 
with  any  but  those  of  his  class. 


Psyclwlogy  and  the  Criminal  233 

Adam  and  Eve  were  turned  out  of  Eden  for  com- 
mitting mere  carnal  sin  in  disobedience  of  divine 
command.  America,  then,  has  the  highest  authority 
on  which  to  purge  herself  of  lawless  blood-spillers ; 
indeed,  so  much  of  obligation  is  upon  America, 
judged  either  from  the  spiritual  or  material  stand- 
point. 

America  cannot,  if  she  would,  do  other  than  pulse 
to  the  international  pulse,  so  long  as  she  out-breeds 
to  all  of  the  Caucasian  races  of  mankind.  Having 
bred  to  the  cold-blooded  from  here,  the  hot-headed 
from  there,  and  incorrigible  enemies  of  public  law 
from  everywhere,  she  may  make  the  best  of  it ;  but 
if  she  really  has  in  reserve  common  sense  sufficient 
to  do  it,  she  can  break  the  strangle  hold  with  which 
social  wreckers  seek  to  place  her  in  chancery.  Con- 
trariwise, if  she  persists  in  attempt  to  wash  the 
world  of  its  human  barnacles,  she  will  pass  of  a 
leprous  poisoning  for  which  there  is  no  known  anti- 
dote. 

RESUME 

While  a  common  mode  of  operating  and  the  wast- 
rel's way  of  satisfying  abnormal  demands  of  the 
senses  usually  tag  criminals  of  different  types,  the 
ultimate  psychology  of  a  given  criminal  will  be  his 
very  own.  Surface  signs  may  or  may  not  differen- 
tiate him  appreciably  from  thousands  of  those  of 


234  Criminal  Types 

his  particular  grade.  In  very  essence  of  soul  he 
will  seem  to  match  another  as  closely  as  his  facial 
lines  and  moulding  duplicate  the  lines  and  moulding 
of  scores  of  others ;  still,  as  to  the  prime  impulses 
that  impel  him,  he  will  be  more  or  less  the  individual 
slave  and  law  unto  himself. 

In  the  sense  that  he  himself  will  not  be  cognizant 
of  the  subconscious  quicksand  that  sucks  him  down, 
the  case  of  a  given  criminal  will  parallel  that  of 
most  all  of  criminals ;  but  while  the  undertow  may 
initiate  in  substantially  the  same  subjective  causes 
for  all,  he  will  run  to  objective  emphasis  for  his 
criminousness  in  accordance  with  the  cardinal  in- 
stincts that  drive  him.  Hence,  since  he  is  just  like 
no  other  criminal  in  every  way,  there  will  be  a  deep 
shading  of  difference  in  the  manner  in  which  he  acts 
and  reacts,  as  compared  with  the  action  and  reaction 
of  any  other  criminal. 

Like  the  time-locked  safe,  each  criminal  has  his 
particular  "combination,"  the  key  to  which  it  is  up 
to  the  State  to  forge — if  it  can. 

Whatever  his  "combination,"  be  surprised  if  the 
convicted  criminal  does  not  assert  stoutly  that  he 
was  not  guilty  as  convicted,  but  "framed."  Then,  if 
you  pin  him  into  position  where  he  cannot  "stall," 
be  surprised  again  if  he  fails  to  rebut  with  parallels 
involving  moral  thieves,  whose  defense  of  wholesale 
pocket-picking  is  substantially  that  made  by  Fal- 
staff  to  accusing  Prince  Henry  in  King  Henry  IV: 


FsycTiology  and  the  Criminal  235 

"Why  Hal,  'tis  my  vocation,  Hal;  'tis  no  sin  for  a 
man  to  labor  in  his  vocation." 

The  natural  criminal  is  nearly  always  a  self-fak- 
ing, hard-bitted  social  rebel,  who  cuts  to  fit  the  gar- 
ment of  his  mind.  He  is  usually  pitiable  much  of  the 
way,  he  should  be  succored  all  of  the  way,  but  he 
must  be  controlled  in  any  humane  way.  He  must, 
else  human  society  will  wax  worthy  of  him  while 
ridden   by   him. 

Even  so,  the  writer  utterly  disowns  rating  of 
"Slippy  McGees"  as  thick-skulled  savages  predes- 
tined for  incurable  criminousness.  Such  rating  is 
disproved  in  the  reclamation  to  social  service  of  thou- 
sands of  lads  who  pulled  out  of  the  very  slough  of 
crime.  Moreover,  the  right  kind  of  free-life  and 
correctional  treatment  of  and  for  the  crime-driven, 
will  stamp  wholesale  damning  of  them  as  duty-shift- 
ing myth. 

Shall  America  continue  to  make  all  kinds  of  bald 
bids  for  habitual  criminals ;  and  shall  America  at  the 
same  time  so  order  her  reformative  regimes  that  they 
shall  establish  rather  than  arrest  criminals  of 
habitual  potentiality,  America  will  perforce  multi- 
ply her  flippant  brood  of  bad  actors.  Still,  that 
consummation  shall  have  been  chargeable  in  such 
instance  to  purblind,  drifting,  license-breeding 
America,  and  not  to  the  withholding  hand  of  God. 


xn 
SUMMARY 

Suspended  sentences ;  probation ;  discharges ; 
quashing  of  indictments ;  bail  under  bond,  pending 
trial  for  ominous  crimes ;  and  early  paroles  from 
prison  houses  are  now  stretched  far  beyond  the  prac- 
tice of  previous  years. 

Schemes  for  lifting  social  blight  from  backsliders 
have  been  broadened  and  quickened  notably  during 
recent  decades. 

Children's  courts  of  probation  constantly  have 
risen  in  numbers,  and  the  gratuitous  offices  of  ever- 
increasing  thousands  of  laymen  and  women  nobly  sec- 
ond service  for  children  haled  to  those  courts. 

From  the  mode  of  operating  most  of  America's 
prisons  has  been  deleted  all  but  the  semblance  of 
repression  and  compulsion:  and  in  their  stead, 
powers-that-be  boast  of  having  capitalized  activi- 
ties which  fit  for  the  sporting  limelight,  rather  than 
for  saving  averages  at  bread-winning  work. 

After-parole  efforts  for,  and  supervision  over,  ex- 
prisoners,  are  vastly  more  inclusive  than  like  en- 
deavor of  any  foretime.     Moreover,  the  public  at 

236 


Summary  237 

large  has  been  minded  to  do  its  duty:  fact  adum- 
brated in  the  vital  circumstance  that  a  prisoner 
is  seldom  held  long  in  duress  for  want  of  a  free-life 
job,  albeit  millions  of  crime-free  hands  remain  idle. 

In  every  conceivable  way — inclusive  of  political 
pull,  chicanery,  graft,  and  criminal  participation 
that  remind  of  rottening  fruit — the  legal  paddle  has 
been  padded  for  application  to  the  predal  felon ;  the 
same,  until  he  construes  criminal  law  in  execution  to 
be  written  agreeably  with  such  interpretation  as  his 
nefarious  necessities  dictate. 

Self-adjudged  reformers  of  both  sexes  and  of  all 
stripes  baldly  palliate  the  chosen  occupation  of  the 
thief,  while  him  commiserating  beyond  the  period 
placed  by  the  Saviour. 

The  patrolman  who  wields  his  nightstick  so  as  to 
shock  the  aesthetic  sensibilities  of  an  attacking  ma- 
rauder, is  liable  to  be  "broken"  if  the  bandit  is  one 
of  the  many  who  make  irresistible  appeal  to  the 
super-emotional. 

A  peace  officer  probably  will  be  condignly  "dis- 
ciplined," shall  ho  have  dared,  in  self-defense,  to 
man-handle  an  underworld  vote-herder  for  them  to 
whom  the  officer  must  either  kowtow  or  cash  in. 

The  chances  that  a  lawbreaker  will  be  apprehended, 
are  about  three  to  one  in  his  favor ;  tliat  he  will  be 
convicted  under  the  wording  of  a  charge  or  charges 
brought  against  him  by  legal  agents,  they  are  about 
ten  to  one;  and  that  he  will  pay  with  his  life  if  he 


238  Criminal  Types 

kills,  they  arc  so  nebulous  as  to  be  nearly  negligible. 

An  escaping  prisoner  may  count  on  the  sympathy 
of  at  least  eight  of  ten  of  the  human  mass,  many  of 
whom  actually  shield  him. 

Most  any  old  alibi,  offered  by  aids-de-camp  of 
crooks,  will  serve  the  accused  on  trial. 

Wrest  what  he  will,  from  whom  he  will,  by  what 
method  he  will,  the  predal  felon  is  not  held  to  mone- 
tary restitution  in  so  much  as  a  red  cent.  The 
looted  can  sweat  for  the  loot  tlie  thief  "plants,"  then 
employs  in  another  swing  around  the  criminal  circle. 

The  least  elastic  of  the  predicates  of  penal  law 
are  held  at  bay  in  all  but  a  temerous  few  of  Amer- 
ica's secondary  prisons. 

Far  from  being  the  crowded-out  derelict  he  is 
painted  by  those  who  are  either  ignorant  or  per- 
jured, the  ex-convict  usually  can  go  to  work  at  hon- 
est Avork,  if  he  wills  to  do  so.  If  he  is  a  skilled 
workman,  work  almost  surely  will  be  provided  for 
him.  If  he  is  unskilled,  3'et  of  parts  such  as  "under- 
cover" Fagins  cultivate,  he  can  always  dodge  art- 
fully and  profitably  as  skirmisher  for  them.  Hence, 
for  one  governing  reason,  "discharged,"  or  "sen- 
tence suspended,"  is  so  frequently  written  over  the 
faces  of  indictments  against  habitual  and  consecu- 
tive scoundrels. 

Public  opinion  still  makes  hair-trigger  response 
to  lament  over  the  lacerated  feelings  of  heartless 
killers. 


Summary  239 

Otherwise  far-seeing  men  applaud  the  frayed 
platitudes  of  criminological  academicians  who  are 
primarily  responsible  for  the  low-down  dance-hall 
atmosphere  of  the  bulk  of  America's  reformative 
plants ;  and  for  the  nauseous  fact  that  in  those 
plants  thief-sport  parasities  are  suffered  to  derail 
industry. 

Search  where  3'ou  may,  and  there  America  practi- 
cally "turns  the  other  cheek"  to  thrusts  of  the  rough- 
riding  drone. 

It  hasn't  worked,  it  doesn't  work,  and  it  won't 
work.  It  has  buildcd  to  the  most  brutal  of  expres- 
sion in  human  history,  and  it  does  threaten  fate- 
fully. 

Well,  then,  since  bidding  for  crime  and  compromis- 
ing with  criminals  won't  do,  what's  the  answer.'' 
What's  to  be  done  about  it,  and  how  is  it  to  be  done.'* 

Most  unfortunately,  such  questions  now  sink  to 
the  bottom  of  an  angry  social  sea,  the  depth  of  which 
the  mind  of  no  one  man  can  plumb :  but  the  troubled 
Waters  shall  have  subsided  for  something  like  safe 
passage,  when  criminals  and  potential  criminals  shall 
have  been  required  to  pay  after  the  manner  in  which 
nature  exacts  reactive  penalties. 

Inclusive  of  moral  criminals,  the  first  logical  step 
in  arresting  criminousncss  is  to  make  criminousness 
the  most  expensive  luxury  man  can  essay. 

First  off,  oblige  predal  felons  to  make  restitution 
in  kind:  as  to  offenses  against  property,  dollar  for 


240  Criminal  Types 

dollar  under  reasonably  elastic  legal  limitations ;  and 
as  to  offenses  against  the  person,  very  much  as  civil 
courts  award  damages  for  bodily  injuries. 

At  the  same  time,  drag  out  and  set  down  hard, 
tliose  who  make  a  business  of  beating  equitable  ex- 
change. 

Bow  out  of  reformative  management  all  who 
would  build  cardinally  to  other  than  earnest,  con- 
secutive endeavor  on  the  part  of  prisoners  for  occu- 
pational skill  with  which  to  meet  the  exactions  of  the 
free-life  working  day.  Essentially,  handcuff  mawk- 
ish sentimentalists  who  cannot  see  the  public  se- 
curity for  oblique  impulse  to  pamper  flippant  for- 
agers. 

Spare  imprisoned,  sin-driven  lads  so  much  as  sug- 
gestion of  the  like  of  pug-charged  thrills,  while  min- 
istering just  common  sense  and  Christ-like  to  their 
crying  needs,  and  probably  the  ninety-and-nine  of 
them  won't  pack  a  gun  and  break  for  money  bags. 

When  the  exceptional  freebooter  just  won't  play 
fair,  and  just  will  go  gun-hung  for  plunder,  isolate 
him  and  keep  him  isolated.  Do  it  both  in  and  out 
of  prison. 

There  is  no  call  upon  the  commonwealth  to  moti- 
vate for  the  commission  of  crime,  tlirough  pyramid- 
ing upon  clemency  that  is  spurned. 


1l3fiS2 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A  A      000  349  464 


CENTRAL  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
University  of  California,  San  Diego 

DATE  DUE 

illA»  J  0  onm 

RECEIVED 

JU^  12  1974 

Soc.  We»     ^      Ub 

«W  24RBCU 

C/39 

UCSD  Libr. 

